Harold Peverell and the Order of Snow Leopard
by Lord of mystics
Summary: Harold Peverell and his friends are preparing for the battle which they know would take place soon. Tom Riddle is leaving on his quest to find more power and more men before he tried to seize the reins of Wizarding Britain. Starts at the end of Harry Potter and the Tribe of Mystics.
1. Chapter 1

**Tete-a-tete before we walk forward on the adventure.**

Hello guys, the last part ended with the students having returned to the school and poor Tom having just woke up to find that his wand is destroyed. Now the story will be getting darker as time passes. We have seen the Light Faction having taken all the advantage it could when the Dark Lord did not know what the Light was up to. Now that he is enlightened, there will be battles which would test the Aurors and there will be blood and gore. I left a lot of open ends in the last part, now I will be closing them one by one. One thing that is obvious is that there will be deaths now. People will die and those left would have to move on. Shall we get on with this then?

**Editor's Note:** I have noticed in the reviews that there is a question as to whether non-confidence or no-confidence is correct. Since I am not always right, I looked it up. Both are correct, depending on where you are. In Canada, non-confidence is correct. No-confidence appears to be used in other places, including the United States. Hope that clears things up.

Regards, Hypergym

* * *

**10, Downing Street**

The muggle Prime Minister was in his office working on his rebuttals for question time tomorrow when someone called, "General Longbottom of the Ministry of Magic wishes an audience".

The muggle Prime Minister of course knew that since there was no one else in his office, it was the wizard in the portrait who had spoken. It was a voice that he never wanted to hear but had been hearing it with increasing frequency in the last 6 months since there was a new minister in the Wizarding World.

Of course he used to scoff whenever someone talked about things like magic with him calling it a fiction and never believed it but his perceptions had changed soon after he had assumed office.

On the day he had assumed office, a man had stepped out of his fireplace wearing a pinstriped cloak and a lime green bowler hat on his head. The man came out of the fire and told him that magic existed and witches and wizards still lived in secrecy all over Wizarding Britain. When he had not believed his claims, the man had simply transfigured his tea-cup into a gerbil.

The other minister (as he liked to call him) told him that they never bothered the muggles (whatever that meant) but it was his duty to inform every new occupant of that office that wizards and witches existed and that magic was real. When he asked why his predecessor had not told him anything about it, the other minister had smirked and asked, "Would anyone believe you if you told them what I have just told you?"

He realized he would have been locked in a mental asylum if he went around saying things like that.

Someone clearing his throat brought him out of his musings, "General Longbottom asking for an audience".

He realized what the frog-like wizard with the silver wig in the painting was saying and asked, "General Longbottom? Is he any relation to the new Minister for Magic, Frank Longbottom?"

There was an awkward pause before the man in the painting replied, "You might say that. I will leave it to him to explain".

He nodded, "Very well, please tell him that I will meet him now".

Frank Longbottom stepped out of the fireplace, brushing soot from his robes and extended a hand towards him, "Prime Minister, how are you?"

The man shook his hand warmly, "I am fine. Will General Longbottom be joining us soon?"

Frank grimaced, "Yes, about that. There have been some changes. I still retain the title of Minister for Magic, but under the current circumstances, I am also General Longbottom".

He remembered the day when the other man had come to his office with another man who was so old that he had wondered how he was still able to walk. The man had introduced himself as Albus (Too-many-names) Dumbledore. He had so many names that it was hard to remember. The older wizard had told him that Fudge had lost a non-confidence motion against him at someplace called the Wizengamot though he had no idea what it was and this man Frank Longbottom was the new minister.

In a way, this new minister was an improvement over Fudge who was a politician and a loud mouth. This man Frank Longbottom had the build of a warrior, the aura of someone who radiated power. He spoke after he weighed his words and his voice inspired confidence in a way that Fudge lacked. Frank had treated him like a fellow human being and had been very patient with him unlike Fudge.

Since then Frank had appeared from time to time in his fire and told him about what was going on in the wizarding world. He had come when someone called Volde-what was his name had attacked the Ministry of Magic. The man was supposed to have died 14 years ago, but was somehow alive and leading an attack on the Ministry of Magic at that. How a dead man could live again was not something that he could understand but Frank had told him that the Wizarding World had declared war against the resurrected wizard and his followers. There was also mention of a boy called Harold Peverell (though he was sure Frank had addressed him with too many names as well) and of some place called Azkaban.

He was brought back to the present with the sound of his office door locking. He turned to find Frank pointing his wand at the door. He mumbled, "If it is all the same to you, I will have the door unlocked".

Frank, who was pointing his wand at the windows and closing the curtains now, said, "I would rather that we are not disturbed or spied upon. The death eater attacks are increasing every day. I am very busy at this time. I could barely make time to come and update you about the situation".

The minister sat in his chair and offered one to Frank. He sat in one of his own. As he waved his wand, he conjured a bottle of mead and two glasses. "Can I offer you some of the finest oak matured mead?", Frank had asked while pouring some for him.

The minister sampled the golden beverage out of curiosity. He found that it was better than most of the alcohol he was used to. It was soothing and had a calming effect upon him.

"Minister, I have some news for you", Frank was saying, "30 Giants have entered Britain. We are looking for them. The Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures is trying to find them as we speak".

The minister almost choked on his mead, 'Gia... Giants? Surely they are not real".

Frank nodded his head somberly, "I am afraid they are very real. They range from 18 to 25 feet in height. They are terribly strong. And I am sorry to say that their nature is to be quite violent and destructive. We are working to round them up as we speak. Now the next issue is that of your security".

The minister protested, "I am satisfied with the security as it is".

Frank shook his head, "If they got at you, it will be a blow to the morale of Wizarding Britain. Now the man in your outer office, Kingsley Sha..."

The minister cut him off, "I am not getting rid of Kingsley Shacklebolt, if that is what you are asking. He is a very competent person who has come with sterling recommendations".

Frank smirked, "Of course because he is a highly trained Auror. He is assigned to you for your protection. Another thing which is essential for you to know is that we dread that there will almost certainly be open war soon. As such, the Ministry of Magic has invoked the Emergency War Measures Act. They have also named me as the general to lead their forces. A lot of bloodshed will follow. I would appreciate it if you did not put muggle law enforcement officers at risk by sending them to investigate any suspicious occurrence unless we said so".

**Ministry of Magic**

Moody was briefing the Aurors who were standing before him. They were led by Proudfoot who had volunteered for the task when Alastor had asked. The task was simple. They had to go to Italy to find the death eaters led by Fenrir Greyback. They were to attempt to subdue and arrest them if they could. If, however they declined the opportunity to accept the hospitality of the Ministry dungeons, they were to be disposed of in the most efficient way possible.

Proudfoot had been selected because other Senior Aurors were already engaged with other assignments. Sirius Black was needed in Avalon because his son was the leader of the Light. If Harry ever heeded anyone, it was Sirius Black.

Gawain Robards was the ministry investigator. He was busy almost every day processing death eaters to be presented before the War Tribunal.

Williamson and Nymphadora were posted in Hogsmeade with 5 Aurors looking after the village.

Rufus was the head of the Wizarding Patrol and as such, he could not be expected to go offshore when they needed him here at home.

Dawlish was on the Hogwarts outpost with 3 Aurors being in charge of the security at the school. He was a senior Auror who was experienced and battle hardened. He could even withstand a crowd of students.

Hestia Jones and Emmeline Vance were in Diagon Alley tasked with keeping the alley safe and secure. Since the Leaky Cauldron archway was open, the threat of death eaters was still there. Kingsley Shacklebolt was assigned to the Muggle Prime Minister after he had been apprised of the threat to him at the hands of the death eaters. A handful of the Prime Minister's senior staff had been replaced with Aurors under Kingsley's command. They had all been carefully trained to pass for muggle bureaucrats.

Alice Longbottom was in charge of the Auror floor since with all the senior Aurors in the field, they needed someone at their base who could act swiftly, would not bend before challenges and answer brutality with brutality.

After them, Proudfoot was the one with the most experience and he was a leader of sorts. He had four Aurors with him and right now, he was standing before the head of Aurors, Alastor Moody who had been busy torturing death eaters they had in the ministry holding cells in his spare time. He addressed the men, "Do you understand your mission, Proudfoot? You are to capture and bring them back. If they resist arrest or use hostile force, do not hesitate to use lethal force against them. I have already written a letter to Giuseppe Bianchi who is the head of DMLE there and he has promised his co-operation. As far as our information goes, they are trying to capture the wand-maker Mazzarin".

Proudfoot clicked his heels and saluted, "Yes Sir" and walked out of Moody's Office to take the port-key to Italy.

**Italy**

Mazzarin's shop was out in a rural area just outside of the wizarding section of the city. Unlike Diagon Alley, the shop was pretty isolated so, there was no place for Aurors to hide.

Fenrir Greyback had been scouting the place for two days before he decided to make the strike. Time was of the essence. They needed to make haste. The Dark Lord had been clear about his orders. They were to capture the wand maker and bring him to the castle at any cost. If they failed, their heads would roll.

After ensuring that there was no threat to them, they had decided to make their move. Fenrir Greyback had taken two werewolves under his command when he arrived in Italy. Now he had 5 Death Eaters and 2 werewolves with him. He was briefing them at the moment.

"Three of you will go in to take the wand-maker hostage. Two of you will cover their exit. Act swiftly; stun him and disapparate to our hide-out. We must act quickly. The Italian Aurors will be after our hides after we have taken him captive. Remember to collect as many wands as you can and do not harm him. If I see so much as a single bruise on his body, it will be your end".

Three of them walked forward looking around them to ensure that they were not walking into a trap. They all had heard how the British Aurors had killed every single one of them in Diagon Alley and the Ministry Atrium in Wizarding Britain and this had visible effect on their psychology.

Mazzarin's shop was unprotected. It had no wards whatsoever so there was little to fear for them. His shop was grandiose in appearance compared to Ollivanders. There was a big display window where a wand was visible in a box on a velvet cushion. The front door was big enough for someone like Hagrid to walk through comfortably. The interior was well lit. The shelves were lined with wands. Mazzarin himself was old, stooping and bald with a greyish beard turning white at the edges. He had a sharp nose and brown eyes which looked hollow, devoid of feelings.

"Welcome Signore!" he exclaimed when the three wizards entered the shop, "How can I be of assistance?"

The three had planned to enter and start throwing curses before he could be any wiser about them or their intentions but his welcoming demeanor had thrown them off. One of them hastily said, "I want to be fitted with a wand".

Mazzarin jovially replied, "Of course Signor. Your previous wand, what was it?"

The death eater took some time to reply, "Apple wood, dragon heartstring, 10 inches, unyielding".

Mazzarin was immediately suspicious. Unknown to them, he had tapped a rune carved on a drawer in his table with his wand which he kept in the drawer, just in case. His demeanour towards them however was not changed, "Ollivander's work, I presume. I wonder what made you come so far to get a wand when you have one of the best wand-makers in your home country".

The death eaters were not ready to answer any questions. They had not thought that things would go this way. Before one of them could say anything more, the backdoor to the wand-maker's shop flew open. A stunner took out one of the death eaters. There were two Aurors framed in the door, dressed in the Maroon robes of the Italian Aurors.

The wand-maker took advantage of the distraction to fire a Bombarda at one of the death eaters before he made a dive behind the counter, "Thought I would not know you, death-eater scum?"

The Aurors in the shop fighting with the death eaters were not the Aurors from Britain but local Aurors who were not used to the rigors of combat as their British counter-parts were forced to learn. They were not using any lethal spells either.

Fenrir Greyback could see from outside that spells were being exchanged. He sent the two reserves in, "Go and help them. I want the wand-maker or I will have your lives".

Left with no option, the death eaters rushed forward only to be confronted by two wizards wearing the Red Robes with the insignia of the Ministry of Magic in Great Britain. They had waited because the Italians did not need their help but now it was imperative for them to step in.

The death eaters knew they were no match for these Aurors in straight combat even if they were using non-lethal spells. All they could do was to defend and retreat.

Greyback was growling, "Do not leave any of them alive".

He rushed forward to help his companions only to be thrown back by a banishing charm. There was Proudfoot, standing before him with his wand levelled at the werewolf, "Leave them be, Greyback. Let me entertain you for a bit".

Growling, Greyback ran forward to tear the wizard limb from limb. The Auror stood nonchalantly. Greyback was confident that the wizard was a dead man standing. But when he was mid-lunge, Proudfoot conjured a silver dagger and banished it at him. Twisting in mid-air, the werewolf managed to only get nicked by the silver blade, but the wound burned like acid had been poured in it. He tumbled over a garden wall to avoid the next dagger.

Another of the werewolves was still twitching but his head had parted company with his body thanks to a dark cutter from the other British Auror.

While Proudfoot kept Greyback pinned down, the last werewolf charged into the shop to make a grab for the wand-maker. With Italian Aurors in front of him and British Aurors behind him, he changed his plan. Scooping up as many wands as he could from a nearby shelf, he waited for an opening. When one of the Italian Aurors showed his face around the end of the shelf, the werewolf lunged at him and nearly tore his wand arm off.

Outside, Greyback was not a wand wielding wizard himself. All he could do was to keep his head down and wait for a break in the spell casting. When it came, that wizard was going to find himself short one wind-pipe. If this had been full-moon, he would have already transformed and got the job done. He simply could not move as quickly in his human form.

When the lull in the casting came, Greyback went for Proudfoot's throat. Proudfoot cast a cutter that should have taken the werewolf's head off, but again, he twisted away from the deadly attack and it only wounded his shoulder. He fell to the ground howling with pain, rage and frustration. The Auror conjured the fire whip (Ignitus Flagellum) and swung it to snare Greyback into it. He had to roll away to save himself. The Auror started sending a rappid-fire barrage of bone breakers at him. He could do nothing except dodge. The Auror knew that if he gave a single chance to Greyback that it may very well be the last mistake of his life. He was keeping him occupied, casting relentlessly. He had been humiliated when Harold Peverell had defeated him in the ministry and he was determined to prove himself this time.

There was a lull in casting. Greyback took the chance to run forward to reach the Auror. He had to dodge a brilliant violet curse. Before he could reach his target, the Auror disapparated.

Several things happened at that moment. The second werewolf rushed out of the wand-maker's shop clutching several boxes and being pursued by an Auror. Proudfoot who had appeared at his back had just banished a silver javelin at Greyback. Taking this as his cue to retreat, Greyback followed his fellow werewolf and they disappeared into the night.

The fight was over everywhere. In the shop, Mazzarin was assessing the damage to his shop. Two of the death eaters had been subdued and captured. A third one lay dead with a silver dagger through his heart which had been meant for the werewolf who escaped with the wands. When Mazzarin took inventory, he found that 40 wands had been stolen. Six more had been destroyed along with a piece of shelving, damage from his own Bombarda. It was to the credit of the Italian Aurors that nothing else had been damaged inside the shop. Outside, one werewolf lay dead, his head a few feet from the rest of his body, still wearing a surprised look on his face. Two of the British Aurors under Proudfoot's command were already cleaning up the mess. The third one policed the area, repairing spell damage and picking up the silver weapons.

Mazzarin was grumbling, "These scum would use my creations for evil now".

Proudfoot who had been uninjured was taking stock of the situation. One of the Italian Aurors had been bitten but since it was not full moon, he would not be turned. He would have some scars and that was all. The three British Aurors who had come with him were safe.

He turned to Mazzarin, "What made you suspicious of them?"

He grumbled, "They were uncomfortable with my questions. They could not even tell about their wand composition at once. No good wizard forgets his wand composition".

The only sore point for Proudfoot was that two of the death eaters had disappeared by their portkeys while Greyback had slipped through his fingers. He vowed to even the score next time.

Proudfoot turned to the supervisor of the Italian Aurors, "Signor, these are your guests until we can make arrangements to take them to Britain. I am obliged for your help".

**Unknown Place, Italy**

Greyback was grumbling about getting his hands on a wand-maker when the other surviving werewolf asked him, "What do you want a wand-maker for?"

Greyback told him that they needed one to outfit the Dark Lord's followers.

The werewolf thought it over for some time before he said, "I know a wand-maker. Not very famous but good work. I can take you to him if you want".

Greyback nodded. Something was better than nothing. At least this way, the death eaters would not be without wands.

Two days later, they had reached an agreement with the wand-maker. He was already a practitioner of dark magics, so he readily agreed to join them. Four days after they had failed to capture Mazzarin, Fenrir Greyback and the wand maker were in the unknown castle.

**Hogwarts**

Harry was at the Gryffindor table with the usual posse of friends, waiting for the Daily Prophet. There was something in the news paper which would turn a lot of heads.

At the usual time, a barn owl landed before him. Harry took the paper, relieving it of its burden. There on the first page was the story which he had asked for Croaker to publish.

_**"Muggle born: are we spurning our own people?**_

_**Elphias Ralphstone**_

_Yesterday, this reporter came across some ground-breaking research which has been hidden from the Wizarding World for too long. This report had the seal of the Department of Mysteries and was indeed genuine. It states that muggle-born are not entirely muggles but born of squibs!_

_Yes, dear reader. The report cites studies undertaken in the past, data gathered through genealogies and reports of many heritage tests. Collectively it all suggests that those called muggle born are born of Squibs on one or both sides of the family._

_A little known fact which has been forgotten about in antiquity is the classification of a wizard or witch as a pure-blood, half-blood or muggle-born. Of these, the term which is the most controversial is muggle born since no apt definition of it has been found so far._

_Muggle born, as far as common understanding goes, refers to witches or wizards born of muggles but the truth is something deeper than this simple misconception. Since magic has to come from somewhere, this lends credence to the theory that the muggle born are descended from squibs. The ancient system of classification of blood states that if someone has ascended from a squib on one side of the family and is within 5 generations of the last magical ancestor, he is considered a half-blood however if one were to be born after 5 generations of the last magical ancestor, they would be considered muggle-born. In that sense, there are only a very few muggle born out there. _

_In fact, recently one Miss Hermione Granger, a fifth year student and Gryffindor prefect at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has been declared to be a half-blood for having descended from Hector Dagworth-Granger, the founder of the extra-ordinary society of potioneers. _

_When the Unspeakables were contacted about the research, one of the unspeakables, on condition of anonymity, told the Daily Prophet that the research is genuine and has been suppressed for ages because the previous administrations did not want this fact to come to light._

_This reporter reached out to the Head of Department of Family Relations, Lady Roxanne Greengrass who confirmed having received a decree from the Goblins regarding investment of Miss Hermione Granger as the head of the previously defunct House of Granger. _

_The Ministry on being apprised of the fact committed to look into the genuineness of the report and to take steps to ensure justice for the muggle born who had to face persecution and bias despite being descended from magical families._

_We could not reach Miss Granger for comment before this went to print."_

Harry finished reading the paper and started looking around to notice the expressions of the students around him. Many of the Muggle-born looked incensed that the report had been hidden for so long from them while some of them looked lost in thought. A few of them were smirking, perhaps imagining how this change would affect their lives. Many of the half-bloods and pure-bloods were trying to get a look at Hermione who appeared to be sitting nonchalantly. Harry knew she was controlling her emotions and doing all she could to not run away from all the ogling.

Colin who was sitting near him asked him wistfully, "Is it true, Harry?"

Harry nodded, "Yes, it is true that Hermione is a half-blood. You also may be half-blood or a full blood or a muggle born as per the classification in the paper. You need to go to Gringotts and get a inheritance test done to be sure of this. However it is by no means certain that every muggle-born will get a positive result on their test".

Justin who was sitting near him asked, "Why the uncertainty? Are there any suspicions about the credibility of this research?"

Harry shook his head, "No Justin but the thing is that Gringotts in England contains only a record of the Wizarding Families in England since it was established. However, if someone's father or mother who was a squib moved in here from say, Germany then there would be no information available about that family here. In that case, any wizard or witch born to that person would have to go to their native land to find out about their ancestry. May be the Goblins can help one get the test done here, in England and ascertain their ancestry. I really don't know much about it".

He turned to Creevey then, "Colin, you should go to Gringotts to get an inheritance test done. Ginny can get you a letter for Kord, the manager for House of Weasley and House of Prewett from Arthur Weasley and he can undertake to pay for the test. There is only one catch to the situation however. If it is revealed that you have any magical ancestry, then your House would be a vassal to the House which sponsored your test. You can decide upon it by talking to Dennis and let me know later. Clear?"

Colin nodded, "Of course Harry". Harry had thought he would ask why Harry would not sponsor him but when the other boy did not ask, he was relieved. He had enough vassals without taking on any more.

Justin was looking at him expectantly and Harry looked at him warily, "Mate, last I checked you had a beautiful girlfriend named Isobel McDougall who belongs to the McDougall Clan and her grandfather Elder McDougall can sponsor you. However, if you are still bent on asking me to sponsor you then I will do it. First, think over everything I have just said and try to find out what being a vassal means in the magical world".

Harry had trouble deciding if he should sponsor anyone or not. True they were his friends but a vassal meant more than just acknowledging friendship. If he took a vassal, he would be responsible for them. Besides, between House of Black and House of Rosssier, there were already quite a few vassals he was responsible for without adding any more. He decided to ask Vikram about it. The mystics were neutral when it came to these things and they could give him an honest opinion.

**Unknown Castle**

The wand-maker was standing before Voldemort and asking specifications of his previous wands to decide upon a suitable wand for him. "My lord, what was your last wand?", he asked, trembling a little.

"Yew, Phoenix feather and 13 and ½ inches", he recited in his high cold voice, "Can you not find me one like that, wand maker?"

The wand maker shook his head, "Such wands are hard to come by and Phoenixes even more so. They are creatures of light. If you were to get your hands on a wand with a phoenix feather which has not come of the same phoenix as your last wand, it would most likely explode in your hand the moment you try to cast with it. I suppose that you got it when you started attending Hogwarts. Since it formed a bond with you, it kept serving you".

Voldemort shrugged, "Do as you see fit then".

The wand-maker pulled out a small stone basin and asked him to pour a few drops of blood into it. He cast a couple of detection spells at the bowl then started reading the results of the spells. When he was done, he turned to Voldemort, "My Lord, I will require Yew Wood, Chimera claw and dragon heartstring for this wand".

Voldemort turned to Triton Selwyn who was attending to him now that Severus was back at Hogwarts to spy for Voldemort, "Triton, you will gather the required materials by evening today and be responsible for whatever he may require of you".

There were plans which Voldemort had laid down and there were preparations to be made. Since the ministry had given him so many blows in such a short time-span, he wanted to do things quickly so the Ministry would not have a chance to strike back. His first order of business was to strike the Island fortress of Azkaban.

Doing so would require him to obtain a port-key from the Department of Magical Transportation as apparition was banned at the Island fortress and he did not had the co-ordinates to make a port-key for the location. They would require standard Auror Port-keys, each of which could take at least 10 of them and he would need at least 3 of such port-keys. There were many of his followers in the dreary prison. He would free them all to use in his quest. He figured he could also commandeer some of the other prisoners by placing them under the Imperious Curse to do his bidding. If nothing else, they would serve him as cannon fodder.

For now, he needed the port-keys and a plan of action to follow. He would need Severus to cook up a distraction for Dumbledore and Peverell. He was still not in a condition to clash with the duo so he would need the duo well away from him and occupied. He could not afford failure at any cost.

**Headmaster's office **

Dumbledore was with Neville in his office, teaching him Animation. Minerva had helped with his Animagus process under Albus's orders. Now he was trying to work his way into the transformation to be able to transform quickly without wasting a moment if needed. He had seen Harry and how swift his transformations were. He could change into the Snow Leopard and out of it in no time.

Dumbledore had pronounced himself satisfied with the improvement that Neville had shown and things he had learned. His formal training as Dumbledore's apprentice was nearly at an end with only a few things to be learned remaining.

"Neville my boy, said Dumbledore, "With your training nearly done, it is time that I announce it to the world. I have taught you almost everything that I could in this time and there are still things remaining you will have to learn by yourself. I will be here, guiding you should you stumble upon the path. There are a few gifts that I have to make to you, though. First is a casket of memories. I learned a lot of magic in my lifetime. Most of it lies in the deep confines of my memory. it will be better if you can watch it when I was learning it so that it would answer any questions or doubts that you may have. There are certain spells which you would see me using in these memories and I would prefer that you would not share them with anyone. Second is my Grimoire. Since there are no other Dumbledores in this world other than me and my brother, Abeforth, who is heirless, it will serve you better. Since I have accepted you as my apprentice, I removed the protections on it. You can open it and there would be no repercussions. Now, we are to formally sign the apprentice agreement which will be sent to the Ministry. If received on time, it will be published in The Daily Prophet tomorrow".

Neville did not say anything for a few minutes contemplating everything that the old Headmaster had told him. Then he started speaking, "Professor, I am thankful for the memories you are leaving to me and the Grimoire but shouldn't you leave these things to Harry? It is well known that he is your favourite student and you are his mentor".

Dumbledore chuckled, "It is true that I gave him some advice here and there but that does not make me his mentor or his master. As I told you when I came to offer you my apprenticeship, Harry has been trained by masters more knowledgeable than me. Being my apprentice, you become my successor. People will see you as the next Dumbledore so rightfully these things belong to you. As far as Harry Potter is concerned, I love him like the grandchild I can never have and I would gladly take a killing curse meant for him but he is not my apprentice".

Dumbledore produced a stack of parchment and a blood quill and handed them to Neville, "Sign these. These are the papers which state that I agreed to take you as my apprentice. This also means that there will be no secrets between the master and the apprentice. I will give every ounce of my knowledge to you which I have already done".

Neville eyed the blood-quill warily and then looked at Dumbledore who shrugged, "I have the license to use a blood quill for such purposes due to my authority as the Chief Warlock. Besides these papers cannot be signed with an ordinary quill. A blood quill must be used since the intent of this agreement is to bind both the parties to it".

Neville took the stack of parchments from him and started to read it. After about 15 minutes when he was done, he signed the parchment while wincing when the blood quill drew his blood. After he had signed it, it glowed for a moment before it turned normal again.

Dumbledore tapped the stack with his wand and it disappeared. Neville was surprised while Dumbledore said nonchalantly, "Not a big deal, Neville. The stack is now on its way to the Ministry where it will be received by the contracts division in the Department of Family Relations. I expect that by tomorrow, news will be in the Daily Prophet".

Before Neville could say anything, the door to his office opened and there was Severus Snape in the doorway, panting and trying to control his breath. He wheezed, "Albus, I have news and you will not like it".

Dumbledore turned to Neville, "I will meet you tomorrow, Mr. Longbottom. I fear I need to talk to Professor Snape without anyone hearing".

Neville took his leave. Severus meanwhile was able to slow down his breathing. Albus offered him a chair and asked, "What happened?"

Snape started speaking at once, "As you know, the Dark Lord's wand was destroyed by the acid in the fake prophecy orb. He sent Greyback to abduct another wand-maker from Italy. Having been thwarted in that attempt, he managed to locate and hire another wand maker who is conversant in the dark arts. He is creating a wand for him now. His next plan is to attack the Island Fortress of Azkaban and release his followers. He is planning to obtain port-keys though he did not make me a party to this plan. I do not know the day of the intended strike or how many will be with him".

Dumbledore dismissed him saying, "Keep your ears open for any bit of news. I am going to the ministry to meet General Longbottom and make a plan".

**Ministry of Magic**

A meeting was going on in General Longbottom's office. In attendance were Alastor Moody, Amelia Bones and Dumbledore besides the General.

Alastor was saying, "As we had agreed, we have to let go of the Island fortress for the time being. We do not know the size of his strike force so our options are limited. Due to the nature of the building, we cannot place wards there. Due to the hostile environment, it is not feasible to keep sufficient manpower over there. What we can do is to empty the fortress of the prisoners who are not there for life and leave the death eaters in there. The Auror outpost on the shore should be closed to ensure we do not suffer any casualties. We will keep a skeleton staff at the prison to keep it running. When their forces attack, the few who are there can use their port-key to apparate out of there, leaving behind the prisoners for him to take. I wish we could send them to other prisons such as Nurmengard but that is not possible so we have to suffer this humiliation of having lost our prison. Since we will not have any facility to keep them contained what should we do with the prisoners that we will capture in the future?

Frank answered this question "I fear we will not have many prisoners at the rate we are killing them in every raid or ambush. The few we have would be eligible for the veil on account of their activities".

**A family business**

Harry entered the Headmaster's office nonchalantly, "Headmaster, I need to go out of the castle at this instant".

Dumbledore arched an eye-brow, "What has happened? Did you get some news?"

Harry shook his head, "No Headmaster. I have some family business that I must attend to in Hogsmeade. I am sorry that I cannot tell you more about it".

Albus looked at him for a few moments and then sighed, "Alright, if you are so bent upon it then you can go but I would appreciate it if you would take someone with you".

Harry nodded, "I will not be alone, Headmaster. Besides you do not need to worry about me. I will take Sirius with me".

Albus nodded, "I will lift the incantations for an hour. Please ensure that you return to the castle within the hour".

Harry smirked, "Do not trouble yourself Professor. You will not know when I was gone and when I return".

With that, Harry disappeared. There was not even a sound nor did the wards register his apparition. They only chimed to tell him that someone had bypassed them. Albus knew Harry would be safe wherever he went.

Harry appeared in the cottage where Sirius had just sat for breakfast with Moony. He silently appeared beside him and said loudly, "Boo!"

Sirius almost fell out of his chair, "Merlin's beard! Pup, don't scare me like that. What are you doing here anyway?"

Harry showed him the letter, "This came for me 3 days ago and I have had people check it. It is genuine. She wants an audience. We are her family and she deserves an audience at least. She will either get her wish or we will wash our hands of her and her son".

Sirius read the letter then nodded, "We will go in but not before I have made sure that there is no one lurking about the inn and..." He had not finished his words before Harry caught his arm and they had disapparated to appear in front of the inn. Without wasting a moment, they both walked inside where the bar was empty of patrons but three wizards were sitting in leather masks.

One of them saluted Harry, "Dharm aur Maan".

Harry returned the greeting. He asked, "Who was the captain of the ship which sails all around the world without being seen?"

The mystic replied "Dishant". Harry nodded, "Have you scouted around this place? Are you sure there are no cattle roaming around?"

The mystic replied, "They seem to be cooped up in their hidden hole. They are not venturing out".

Thanking the wizard, Harry turned to Aberforth, "Sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Dumbledore".

Aberforth waved him off, "Think nothing of it, lad. Go on up, she is on the second floor".

On the second floor, they entered a room without knocking. Narcissa was inside waiting for them.

As she saw him, she knelt, bowing before him, "Lord Black, I am honoured that you accepted my request".

Harry motioned for her to rise, "Narcissa, you should know by now that I do not want or need this bowing and scraping, nor would it influence my decision in the slightest. Please come to the point so that I may consider your request".

As Narcissa rose to her feet, Harry noted that she looked haunted and pale. Her frame which she normally held tall and proud was gaunt and a bit bent. She took a deep breath before she started speaking, "Lord Black, as you know, Lucius is incarcerated in Azkaban. During his trial, he made some statements which jeopardized our lives. I fear that the Dark Lord in his anger and out of spite will force Draco to do his bidding so that he will get killed at the hands of the Aurors. I have been shielding Draco while we were in hiding since the trial but now he is in the school and I cannot save him there. Will you protect him?"

Harry thought about it. True that Malfoy was a git but he had no power now. His father was in jail and he was scorned by his housemates. Any snake loyal to Voldemort could kill him. All Narcissa was asking for was his protection. He could do it but he decided to attach some conditions, "Narcissa, your request seems to be just however I will grant it under two conditions. First, he has been contemptuous toward my friends who I consider to be as close as family. So long as he refrains from acting against any of them or me, I will protect him from any harm. Second, he must accept my protection. I cannot guard him against his will. I also offer you my protection if you will accept it. My offer, however, does not extend to Lucius. He is a criminal and he will pay for his crimes. Do you accept my terms?"

She bowed her head, "I am thankful to you, Lord Black. I will be responsible for his conduct".

Harry directed Sirius, "Place her in Moony's care. She will be safe enough at the plantation".

**The Leaky Cauldron**

The wizarding populace was abuzz with the news published in the Daily Prophet this morning. The news that Dumbledore had accepted an apprentice had come as a shock. What was more that the said apprentice was a mere student. This was unusual. But then, when had Dumbledore ever done anything which was considered usual?

People at the inn were talking about it and speculating about the turn of events. Most of them had assumed that Dumbledore would take Harold Peverell as his apprentice. Most of them had no idea about Neville Longbottom except that he was the son of the Minister of Magic.

One wizard was saying to his companion, "If Dumbledore has accepted him as his apprentice then it means that the boy must be special. I am personally waiting to see what he will do".

An unmarked death eater was at the inn. He was hearing about the rumours going around. He listened to everything for as long as he could without attracting attention to himself. But when he heard nothing substantial, he walked out of the inn and disapparated away.

**Hogwarts**

_**"Dumbledore Announces His Apprentice**_

_According to an announcement made by the Ministry of Magic, the Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore has recently taken on an apprentice. While this was not unexpected, what was surprising is the candidate who was chosen for the said honour by the venerable old wizard. As most of wizarding Britain, yours truly included, was expecting him to take on Harold Peverell, the boy-who-lived as an apprentice, he chose to bestow the honour on Neville Longbottom, the heir of House of Longbottom and the son of General Longbottom._

_This will not change things significantly. But it does raise questions as to why Dumbledore chose him as an apprentice in place of the boy-who-lived when he is also being called the chosen one these days?_

_According to some of his friends at Hogwarts, he is a wizard with common talents who never stood out before this year. Since this year started, however, he has been seen fraternizing with the boy-who-lived and they are as close as best mates. _

_Harold Peverell, the boy-who-lived had to say on the news, 'Dumbledore has chosen the perfect person to be his apprentice. Neville is an able wizard who is worth the honour and he will shoulder the Headmaster's legacy with ease'._

_Albus Dumbledore or Neville Longbottom could not be reached before this went to print."_

This was the news that had been published in the Daily Prophet and the whole of the school was surprised with the proclamation. Students were revisiting everything they knew about the boy but except for those who were his friends, none could recall anything special about him. The members of the Order of the Snow Leopard however knew that the Headmaster had chosen true.

At the Hufflepuff table, where Harry and his group were sitting for breakfast, Hermione was surprised, "When did this happen? What was the basis for this selection? Why did you not tell us, Neville?"

Neville had the audacity to laugh, "Hermione, I have to repeat Harry's catchphrase for you- HERMIONE BREATHE. This happened sometime during summer vacation. We had a long chat before he made this decision. I did not tell you because he told me to keep it a secret from everyone".

Hermione grumbled something about everyone keeping secrets from her. Harry smirked mentally about her not knowing even half of the secrets they were hiding.

Just then Professor Sprout descended upon their table, "Mr. Peverell and Mr. Longbottom, the Headmaster wants an audience with you two in his office after breakfast".

Harry nodded, "Thank you, Professor. We will get going right now".

**Let's kill some corpses**

In his office, Dumbledore welcomed them, "I have received some grave news. I want your help in this".

Harry nodded, "How can we help, Professor?"

Dumbledore started speaking, "I have received news that Tom is going to create inferi. There is an underground lake where he has hidden dead bodies of many wizards, witches and muggles that he killed. He intends to raise them to augment his forces. I wish for you both to come with me and destroy those bodies".

They both nodded, "When are we going?"

Dumbledore grinned, "We will leave in a moment. I have sent letters to your teachers that you both will not be in your classes today".

He produced a piece of rope, "This is our portkey. Hold on and we will be going".

5 minutes later, they were standing on the edge of a stone precipice below which was the sea. Dumbledore looked at them and grinned, "Time to swim, boys".

Harry balked, "Headmaster, Neville and I have both gone swimming under conditions worse than this, but may I ask why we have to get wet here?"

Dumbledore smiled, "Do you see any way for us to cross this distance? There are anti-apparition wards around the place where we are going".

Harry asked him, "Can you show me where we would emerge from the sea, professor?"

Dumbledore showed him. Harry spent a minute, concentrating on the spot. Then he took Neville and Dumbledore each by the arm and they disappeared. The three of them reappeared on the rock just inside of the cave mouth, warm and dry. Dumbledore was surprised, "That was so different from apparition. I did not even feel the usual squeezing and suffocating experience".

Harry gave him a smirk, "Let's get done what we are here to do, Professor. The clock is running".

Dumbledore turned to him, "This is your test, Neville. Can you feel another magical signature here? Something hostile?"

Neville closed his eyes with his wand out. He spread his senses out. In a few minutes he opened his eyes, "Yes, a nasty, foul smelling magical presence which is quite strong".

Dumbledore had gone into his professional mode now and was waving his wand around and muttering something when an archway appeared in the wall. Harry and Neville were watching him curiously, neither of them having learned how to do the said phenomenon yet. The archway which had appeared faded away again almost immediately.

Dumbledore grimaced, "So crude! Tom was never the best of thinkers".

Neville asked him, "Why did the archway disappear, Professor?"

Dumbledore turned to them, "This archway will not open without blood payment".

Harry said, "Stand aside. I'll blast it open".

Dumbledore said, "That would be unwise, Harry. For one thing, Tom will almost certainly be alerted to our presence here if we do that. And, I would like to leave a little surprise for him when he accesses this place again".

Before Dumbledore could say anything more, Harry slashed his palm with a cutting charm and splashed the blood on the walls. The archway appeared again and it did not fade away this time. Harry had already mended his palm. Together, the trio passed through to the next chamber. As they were in, the door faded away. Dumbledore had his wand out and lighted it. There were in an underground cavern which was deep with a lake inside. There was a dim glow in the distance, across the water.

He addressed both of them, "the dead bodies are in the lake. They will react to any disturbance of the water. To attract their attention, I will roll some stones into the lake. They will start coming up and attack anything that is warm or moves. Remember they can only be killed by fire".

As he started rolling stones into the water, the dead started rising one by one. The sight of them was horrible. Their organs looked decomposed and they reeked.

Harry and Neville both had their firewhips out already. They started swinging as the first one came at them. The inferi came up out of the water, trying to press in on them and overwhelm them. The young wizards used their firewhips to lasso them around the middle, cutting them in half and setting them on fire before they could get within arm's reach. Dumbledore stayed back a pace keeping the area lit and standing by in case any of the dead managed to get too close.

They kept at it for 15 minutes. The air was full of acrid, oily smoke from the burning dead. The trio resorted to bubble-head charms to provide themselves with clean air to breathe. They had already destroyed more than a hundred inferi but they just kept coming. Harry began to wonder at the sheer numbers of Tom Riddle's victims. As far as he could see out into the darkness, the lake seemed to be boiling where the bodies of more of them were coming to the surface. Finally, Harry had enough. He threw a banishing charm at Neville throwing him back. Thrusting his wand forward, he yelled at the top of his voice, "Dawanalam (fiendfyre)".

The fiery form of the snow leopard burst out of his wand, burning all the dead in its path, leaving nothing but smoke and a bit of oily ash. It incinerated everything above the surface. After about five minutes, there were no more traces of active undead and Harry dispelled his Fiendfyre.

He made to step forward when Dumbledore stopped him, "Careful Harry, some of them are still in the water".

Harry thrust his wand forward and incanted different spell this time, "Yawanagni (Greek Fire)". It was one of the incantations in the spell-book Pawan had given him and this spell was meant to start Greek fire. While Fiendfyre could not burn below water, Greek fire burnt under water as well and devoured everything.

In 10 more minutes, the lake was free of the inferi and none of them had so much as a scratch.

Before they disapparated out, Dumbledore left a parting gift for Tom the next time he accessed the underground cave.

**Behind the mirror, 4th floor**

When the order met for the first meeting this term, Harry started talking to them about warfare. It was essential to have some semblance of a plan before hand if they were besieged suddenly.

"You know in a battle, the most important thing is to be able to follow command. If a team can adhere to commands issued by a single commander of theirs then they will suffer minimum casualties. For that purpose it is important to know what one can do for his effort in the war. I know not everyone can stomach blood and gore so it is no shame if you cannot fight. There are other ways that you can contribute in it. For example, if Hogwarts is besieged and the enemy is at the gates with a mighty army, what do you think should be our first course of action?"

Hermione answered that question, "There are a lot of under-aged witches and wizards here. They have no business in a real fight and they should be evacuated as quickly as possible. If we don't have to worry about protecting the non-combatants, we can focus our efforts better on defeating the enemy".

Harry nodded, "As far as that goes, you are right. Now, consider where would we evacuate them? How will we make sure that the evacuated students are safe? There are many students who are children of death eaters. We can't just let them go out and tell their families all about our defenses. What can we do in such a case?"

Neville answered this one, "We will have some people to stand guard over the students until we can be sure that it is safe to release them to their families. It is as much for their safety as ours. We can evacuate them to safe houses where they would be looked after".

Harry started speaking again, "What will be our next step in such a case?"

Susan said, "The next step would be to divide our forces to post them in various parts of the castle so that they can augment the ministry forces. It would be better if we spend the time to practice it before hand so we will not have to scramble around in confusion".

Harry smirked, "And what should be after that?"

This time Ernie replied, "We will need to divide up into units and send them where they are needed, depending on what type of foe they are facing. We will need people with silver swords and quick reflexes to defeat the werewolves. We will need groups who can take turns casting, dodging and shielding to go up against the spell casters. We will need healers to care for the casualties. And what do we do about the giants? I heard that they have about 30 of them".

Harry nodded, "I have a big surprise prepared for their giants. They are not likely to get close enough to even engage. As for the rest, we have a few who are qualified to wield swords. Most of us will either be helping the medics or providing support for the spell casters. Now do you all know about battle formations?"

Hermione answered, "I have read a little about them. They were prominent mostly in old times when wars were fought with swords and later with muskets".

Harry asked her, "So how different is fighting with a wand? If for example, we have about 30 death eaters in the Transfiguration courtyard and we have about 15 of our fighters around them in chakra (circle) formation which is shrinking inwards with about 8 wizards casting relentlessly while 7 of them are shielding them or their companions, what do you think our chances would be? Or if we choose a strategic location in the castle from where we have the advantage and we place groups of fighters there then who would have the advantage?"

Others were nodding at his line of thought. It was well thought out strategy which could be useful to them but that would require them to practice it beforehand.

Michael Corner turned to him, "What do you propose Harry? How do we do it? I mean I can get it that you are talking about these things to us because we need these strategies in case the castle is the ground for battle".

Harry smiled, "Alright that brings me to the second part of this discussion. How many of the students who have been practicing with us would be amenable to fight?"

Michael thought hard and said, "Of the 80 who has been practicing with us for the last term, I think about 60 of them would be willing to fight. 20 of them are either younger than us or cannot stomach blood and gore".

Harry nodded, "Those 20 can help in the evacuation, looking after the students in the safe houses to ensure that they do not escape and go to their families to tell on us".

Harry turned to Hermione next, "Hermione, you once had asked for a task worthy of your talents. Here it is. I want you to assess the students. List them with their abilities. Consult with Ron and set them up in units for each type of operation. We need details for help with evacuation, directing traffic and looking after the students that we have to babysit for the duration. I also want you to form units to assist with the casualties. And combat units for ranged and melee fighting". Hermione nodded and he turned to Ron, "Ron, I have a task for you if you want it".

Ron asked uncertainly, "Yeah, what is it?"

Harry smirked, "Don't look so gloomy. Besides helping Hermione make up the units, I want you to form some strategies around how those units will be most effective. Keep in mind that other than Neville and me, none of these guys have seen any real combat yet. It is time to put that chess brilliance of yours into action".

He turned to the twins again, "You two, what is your progress with that contraption I wanted?"

Tracy answered for them, "It is almost ready, Harry. We have made it now we just have to enchant it. When a lever on it is pressed, it will super-heat the liquid within. When the pressure is too much, the sphere will explode, releasing a cloud of deadly vapour. Anyone or anything caught in the 20 foot radius cloud is going to have a really bad day. It should take about five seconds between releasing the lever and the sphere exploding. Of course, they could be broken open faster if they are dashed against a hard surface".

Harry nodded, "We will have to divide the students into teams. I want at least 2 of you to be involved in the evacuation and 1 of you to be present in the hospital wing if an attack happens. I would encourage you to join Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing in the meanwhile to learn some primary healing so that she would not be over-burdened".

With that the meeting was dismissed. They scheduled the next session in the Room of Requirement that night.

**London**

Madam Edgecombe was walking towards the entry point to report for her duty this morning, when a wizard appeared before her. While she was startled, she recognized the new-comer as Walden Macnair.

He bowed to her curtly, "Madam Edgecombe, how are you? I swear you are looking sparklingly brilliant today".

She knew Walden was a marked death eater and should have stunned him the moment he appeared before her but she always had a weak spot for flattery. She asked him, "Mr. Macnair, where have you been? I heard you had joined the death eaters?"

Macnair grinned at her, "You had indeed heard right, Madam and I am here today on the orders of my master to take you captive". Before she could act, he had his wand out and intoned, "Imperio".

Madam Edgecombe tried to resist him for a moment before she eventually gave up. With that Macnair disapparated away and she went to her office.

Since she was not a marked death eater and worked in the department of magical transportation, she had access to the Standard Auror Portkeys that Voldemort needed.

That day at the office, she picked up 5 such portkeys. When she arrived home, she delivered them to Macnair who was waiting there for her. Since her daughter Marietta was in Hogwarts and her husband was dead, there was no way anyone could find out that she had been imperioused.

**Unknown castle**

Voldemort was testing his new wand. This one felt as good as his last one. There was no substantial difference in his casting. It still enabled to him to practice all the magic that he knew.

Walden Macnair had performed his commission satisfactorily. He was ready to storm Azkaban and augment his forces many fold. He was hopeful of retrieving at least 60 of his death eaters for his forces.

Triton Selwyn walked into his chamber and bowed low to kiss the hem of his robes, "My Lord, we are ready to go. A team of ten of your followers is ready to follow you".

Voldemort asked him, "Is Severus here?"

Selwyn shook his head, "He has not yet reported in, my lord".

Voldemort drawled, "Pass me your arm, Selwyn".

Selwyn extended his arm to him and Voldemort pressed his wand on the dark mark, digging into it. It caused immeasurable pain to Selwyn but he gritted his teeth and held on. Even a whimper from his mouth would get him subjected to the Cruciatus Curse at the hands of the Dark Lord.

About 5 minutes later, Severus walked in bowing low, "My Lord, you called?"

Voldemort sneered, "Took you long enough, Severus? Have your loyalties changed towards me?"

Snape said defiantly, "No, my lord. I am still loyal to you. The old fool had me in his office talking about your activities. He told me that the Ministry is planning to attempt to plant a spy in your forces to find your hiding place".

Of course it was misinformation which Snape was feeding him. Voldemort growled, "They cannot fool me again. I was short sighted the last time to act in haste and walk into their trap. Now, I wish for you to remain here until I return from an errand I am running".

Severus bowed, "Your will is my command, my lord".

With that Voldemort walked out followed by Selwyn. In 10 minutes, they were out of the castle taking the portkey to Azkaban.

**Azkaban**

The prison was down to a skeleton staff of only ten wizards. Most of the prison was already empty of prisoners. Most of them had been sent away to other countries while some with lighter sentences such as a year or two in Azkaban were offered the option of paying a fine instead of serving out their sentences. They had taken that option. In this way, the ministry had made preparations to minimize their losses. Those who remained were mostly death eaters. The Dementors had been feasting on them for periods longer than usual. Most one of them would be too insane or too powerless to be of much use to their dark lord.

The portkey deposited them on one of the port-key points of the fortress. Voldemort knew the gate was two feet thick and it would not budge by ordinary force. He whipped his wand out and thrusting his wand forward, he put all his power into his spell, "Bombarda". There was a tumultuous roar as the door was blasted apart.

The blast had shaken the foundations of the wizarding prison. The dementors were getting restless at the intruders. If they attacked, things would be over before they began but they did not attack.

As soon as the gates had been breached, the Aurors in the fortress had activated their portkeys and were gone. They would not be returning to Azkaban ever. The Dementors had recognized his presence and the jail break which was happening. They did not attack the death eaters. They only continued to fly around them.

Bellatrix was in her cell. Her arm was itching, her right arm where her dark mark was. She tore open the dirty robes over her arm to reveal the dark mark. It was as black as the day it was branded on her skin. Her magic was also flaring which happened when she was in the presence of her master. She cackled, "MASTERR!"

His followers had been liberating each of the prisoners while some were searching the inventory of the prison. Voldemort himself was liberating his most loyal followers out of the prison. When he liberated Bellatrix, she fell at his feet, clutching his legs and cackling, "MASTER IS BACK!"

He picked her up and said in a rageful voice, "My dear Bellatrix! How they have treated you! I swear they will pay for it".

That was more or less the same scene with most of his other loyal followers who fell at his feet as he liberated them.

After most of his followers had been liberated, two of his followers brought Lucius Malfoy before him. He sneered at the blond man, "Lucius, you wavered from your faith yet here I am. Saving you from the ministry in return for your ungratefulness and disloyalty towards me. You will be punished for your insolence Lucius".

He beckoned one of the Dementors forward and talked in some incomprehensible way with it before the Dementors started to fly away, gliding towards the shore.

He beckoned Selwyn forward, "What is the report Selwyn?

Selwyn hesitated reporting, "My Lord, we liberated 20 of your followers who were in the prison here. There was not a single soul other than them in the prison. We have searched all the levels of this fortress. I assume that the ministry knew we were coming and they emptied the prison of all of the prisoners and..." *Thwack* before Triton Selwyn could say more, a dagger had entered his body directly over his heart, killing him instantly.

Voldemort roared in fury. He turned towards the direction where the dagger must have come from. He saw a figure running away. He and many of his followers who were standing with him sent killing curses that way but the man had already turned a corner and disappeared. A few of his followers chased after him but they did not find him anywhere.

This man was an Auror on duty named Bartley Higgins. He had been one of the oldest Aurors of the Ministry of Magic. He had just joined the Ministry when the first war was about to end. He was not well known like other senior Aurors but he kept his head low and did his work. Amelia had tried to give him some role when Frank took his place as Minister of Magic but he had respectfully refused telling her that his reward would be to kill as many death eaters as he could. He was a muggle born whose family had been killed by death eaters. He had an eternal grudge against them.

Unknown to most people and even the ministry of magic, he was an Animagus, a seagull to be precise. He had registered himself with the ICW though. When the other Aurors had disapparated away, he had stayed behind to spy on the death eaters. A sea gull in the middle of sea gulls would be missed by most of them. When he saw that Voldemort had liberated his followers, his orders were to return to the ministry but he could not resist taking the shot with the dagger. His hatred for Voldemort was such that he could have cast the Killing Curse at the dark lord without thinking twice. He had to take news to the Ministry and duty came first.

As soon as he had hurled the dagger, he had started running away without stopping to see if it had hit its mark. By the time the death eaters started to look for him, he had already transformed. In his animagus form, he saw that he had killed Triton Selwyn instead.

Voldemort was cursing his luck. After getting the dementors and his followers liberated, he had lost one of his followers and Selwyn was one of his best fighters. Asking Goyle to dump Selwyn's body in the sea, he started distributing portkeys to his followers. Within moments, they were ready to go. When every portkey was away, Voldemort was left behind. He looked at the fortress with hatred and put all of his anger and frustration into the bombarda Maxima which he cast. This blew the top half of the Island fortress into tiny bits. Feeling some satisfaction, he cast the dark mark over the ruins of the erstwhile prison fortress, then disapparated.


	2. Chapter 2

**London**

Wizarding Britain woke up to some grim news headlines:

_**"Azkaban reduced to rubble**_

_**Barnabas Cuffe**_

_In a press note issued by the Ministry yesterday, it has been stated that the Island fortress which was the only maximum security incarceration facility in Wizarding Britain has been razed down to rubble in a death-eater attack last evening._

_The ministry also said that about 20 wizards and witches, most of whom were branded death eaters were rescued by the terrorist otherwise known as Voldemort. There were no other casualties among the prison guards as a result of the attack. It is also reported that the Dementors have defected. They have changed their allegiance to Voldemort. _

_The only real loss is that the building of the former prison was reduced to rubble. As such, it will be of no use to us anymore, meaning that there will be more executions. The Ministry will also have to find someplace else to keep its prisoners._

_As for the former inmates of the prison, the ministry reported that most of them had already been transported to other countries. A few who were serving lighter sentences had their sentences commuted. They were given the option of paying a fine and being released instead of serving the balance of their sentences._

_It seems that the war is going to heat up from now with the most dangerous of Voldemort's death eaters at large again. (To see a list of escapees, see P. 10)_

_Here I would like to remind our readers that these escaped death eaters are part of what was called his inner circle during the last war. With them being at large again, this writer is concerned for the safety and security of Wizarding Britain._

_General Longbottom was quoted as saying, "It would seem that the loss of our maximum security prison is a major blow but the facility was aging and dangerous anyway. We will rebuild a new, better, stronger, safer facility. The dementors will be dealt with appropriately for their defection. The escaped prisoners will face our Aurors. There can be no doubt how that will end._

_While the war is afoot, we will promptly execute every death eater who deserves it after we have tried them. I am determined to fill them with fear of the might of the ministry"._

This was the news in the Daily Prophet this morning with a picture of the ruins with the dark mark hovering over it. It had sent people into frenzy all over wizarding Britain. The office of General Longbottom was receiving letters by the dozen every hour from ordinary wizards and witches to seek reassurance from him that everything was fine. Frank had been so inundated by these requests that he had to put a mail ward on himself and Green Hues. Consequently all the mail sent to the General was being routed to an empty room in the bowels of the Ministry of magic. There a few of the staff were going through it, vetting it.

**Office of General Longbottom**

"I could not resist taking a shot at him. I knew I could be killed but I threw a silver knife at him. Then I turned tail and ran. I transformed as soon as I was out of their sight. Later when I was spying on them in my animagus form, I saw that my knife had found Triton Selwyn's chest. he died almost immediately", reported Bartley Higgins.

In the office of the Minister of Magic, the General was sitting with the Chief of DMLE and the Head Auror. They were in conference about the incident at Azkaban. They had the Auror reporting in person to them who had killed Triton Selwyn in the fortress.

"You did a commendable job, Bartley. I am promoting you to work under Sirius Black to be in-charge of the training of the Trainee Aurors.", said Frank, "and I do not want you refusing my offer either. I want the boys to know you, respect your authority. There may be times when you yourself may have to lead the charge. The days of looming in the shadows are over for you, my friend."

With that Bartley walked out of the office. Frank turned to Alastor, "Alastor, report."

Alastor adopted a professional stance as he did when reporting to his senior officer, "Voldemort used standard Auror grade port-keys to reach the Island fortress. They were issued in the name of Madam Edgecombe. Robards went to personally investigate her and he found that she was under the Imperious curse when she tried to kill him with her bare hands. He sustained a few injuries while trying to subdue her. Right now, she is undergoing treatment at St. Mungo's where the healers are trying to cure her. So far, she has injured two healers. They regretfully had to give a Draught of Living Death to her while they worked on her. It would be safe to assume that she will be out of commission for many months".

Frank nodded, "Were you able to trace the path of the portkeys?"

Moody shook his head, "We could not. He had Madam Edgecombe take four port-keys but he used only one. He used his own port-keys to take his followers away. We tried to trace its path but it was untraceable."

Frank shrugged, "What have we lost in addition to the fortress?"

Moody thought for sometime before he answered, "I suppose, the Dementors. They deserted when the fortress was attacked. But, I don't really know that they were ever on our side. That's all."

Based on our latest intelligence, he has 30 Giants, about 200 Dementors, about 150 wizards and roughly 300 werewolves. That is a formidable force for us to face."

Frank said wryly, "If the war were to be decided by numbers alone, we will need more wands on our side. Monsieur Delacour had promised me some help. Dumbledore tried to get help from the War Wizard Contingent of the ICW but they refused, saying it is a revolt or civil war, not an invading force or international incident like the Grindelwald war".

Alastor asked him, "What about the lad's friends? Won't they participate in the war?"

Frank shook his head, "No, Alastor. They never fight open wars unless it is imperative for them. The only way they would participate is if Mr. Harsh Vardhan asked them to."

Moody said grimly, "then let's hope that Voldemort does not get anymore followers or that we receive unexpected help from different quarters."

**Hogwarts**

The students were looking at the grid of photos on the front page of the Daily Prophet. Each one was a photo of one of the death eaters that had been broken out of Azkaban with their name and a page reference where one could find an account of their crimes and convictions.

Most of them were considered to be as bad as Voldemort himself. Harry knew that the paper was not far from wrong. The ones who were rounded up after Voldemort's fall had continued to wreck havoc in his name. They were all well versed in dark magics. It was almost certain that they would know almost as much as he did.

Neville was glaring hatefully at Bellatrix Nameless. His expression looked murderous. His magic had wrapped itself around him like a cloak. Harry knew that Neville would like nothing better than to hack her to death. Hannah was there holding his hand in hers, patting it lightly, whispering words in his ear.

Harry was glaring at Travers, one of those who had been incarcerated in Azkaban since the end of the last war. One of his purported crimes included being involved in the murder of the McKinnons. He wanted to get his hands on that one to kill him after he had performed all the methods of torture that Charak had taught him.

Susan was glaring at Bellatrix nameless and Augustus Rookwood. He was a pockmarked wizard who was scratching his nose and looked like he was bored in his picture frame. One of his crimes was to have helped in bringing down the wards around the house which Edgar Bones had bought for himself and his wife. He was a ward specialist who had been employed in the past in the Department of Mysteries. He could break down any ward if he was given sufficient time to study it.

He carefully studied the names of every witch and wizard who had escaped Azkaban. He burned their names and crimes into his memory so that he would know who had personal grudges against each one and exactly how much justice to extract from every one of them before he allowed them to die.

There was Dolohov who had been incarcerated for having killed the Prewett twins. Any one of the Weasleys would love to have a chat with him. There was Mulciber Sr. who was incarcerated for killing a family of muggles. Any one of them could settle up with that one. There was Corbin Yaxley who was sent to Azkaban for having killed 5 Aurors during the previous war including Reginald Dunbar. It looked like Fay wanted nothing more than to get her hands on that death eater and kill him.

The mood was grim all over the castle. Many of the students looked thoughtful, some of them looked angry. A few were gleeful. Harry was marking the important ones. He also remembered Narcissa's request. He wrote a short note and sent it to Jugson through one of Hogwarts Elves to come meet him on the fifth floor in an abandoned room with other Vassals of House of Black, at dinner time when almost all of them would be in the Great Hall.

**A meeting with Vassals**

Jugson, Everly and Dryden entered the room and bowed to Harry before he offered seats to them. After they were seated, he turned to Jugson, "Where is your father?"

"He is in hiding at one of the safe houses of my family. The Dark Lord has still not noticed his absence so his dark mark has not flared at all. He asked me again if you can get mercy for him from the ministry."

Harry asked him earnestly, "Did he ever kill someone in his service? Was he convicted for it or did he use the Imperious defense?"

He shook his head, "I do not know Lord Black. He has never told us about his time as a death eater. He would only say that it was the most embarrassing time of his life."

Harry thought for a few minutes before he started speaking again, "I will offer a letter of reference for him. In a week's time, he is to present himself to Alastor Moody at the Ministry of Magic. He will offer to give up all secrets of Voldemort that he knows of in return for clemency or a blanket pardon if he did not commit any horrible crime. The unspeakables need someone to conduct their research on the dark mark. Your father would be safe in their custody while they try to find a way to rid him of the mark and if his connection to Voldemort through it can be severed in some way".

He turned to Everly and Dryden, "If you have someone in your family in the same predicament then something similar can be arranged for them, but only after considering their crimes. You three cannot return to your homes in the meanwhile because I expect that Voldemort or his followers will come recruiting. Given their tactics, you would have to join them or be killed."

As Jugson pondered everything Harry had said, Harry started speaking again, "I have a job for all of you, if you agree. Since the final battle will be fought here, we will need to evacuate the castle. I want you to make a list of students who come from families of death eaters or would act for Voldemort if he attacked the castle. When we are evacuating, you three will be keeping guard over such students at one of my safe houses with a couple of Aurors. I will make sure that you are given recognition for your service. the taint of death eater on your houses is washed off by your service to the light".

Jugson was the first to find his voice, "Lord Black, I am grateful for the generosity you are bestowing upon me. My father had left it for me to decide where to pledge my allegiance to the Dark Lord or to renew my fealty to you. I am glad that I chose the latter. I will ask him to surrender to Alastor Moody as soon as you can give me a letter of Reference for him."

Dryden and Everly were of the same mind. This was the best deal they would be getting in the present climate. Their families were bent on serving the Dark Lord. They wanted them to stay away from it. This was in every way beneficial however Dryden asked him, "Do you require any service of us?"

Harry nodded, "As a matter of fact, I do. Can you tell me what Draco Malfoy is up to?"

Everyly started telling him, "As much as he is a pathetic scumbag, I feel pity for him sometimes since he returned from Winter Vacation. He has been abandoned by everyone. He kind of keeps himself to himself. He has no one to talk to. He sleeps with his wand nearby. His cronies, Crabbe and Goyle have abandoned him. They now serve Theodore Nott who is the new boyfriend of Pansy Parkinson since Lucius Malfoy lost his status before the Dark Lord. The Light has always detested him for his behavior towards muggle-born, half bloods and other pure bloods who he calls blood traitors. As for neutrals, there are no neutrals since Lord Greengrass joined the Light Side in the Wizengamot. With things being the way they are, he is favored by no one, scorned by those who were previously his friends. He spends most of his time cooped up in his dorm or sometimes in the library. There is nothing to suggest that he is up to any mischief."

Harry heard everything with an impassive face while he felt a little sorry for the ferret. True the ferret had caused problems for him with those 'Potter Stinks' badges among other things. But Harry had already more than fully paid back any insult Malfoy had ever given him and got a full apology out of him besides. And slimy git or not, this was still his cousin, a black and a 15 year old boy. Harry would help him, if he would allow it. A lonely existence was a miserable existence which no one should have. He turned to the trio, "I have a job for you all. You will keep an eye on Malfoy. If he gets up to any mischief or anyone threatens him or plots against him, you are to let me know immediately. Don't try to handle it yourselves. That is, unless he is in immediate danger, then protect him the best you can and get word to me. I need every one of you to be above reproach, keep your hands clean and appear to the death eater's children that you are on their side. If you need me, hand a note or a message off to any of the house elves. I'll be there before you know it. I want a daily report of the Malfoy heir."

**Head Master's study**

Albus Dumbledore had sent for Harry and Neville to talk about something important. When they entered, he offered seats to them. After they sat down, he asked them, "I presume you both know about the break-out from Azkaban?"

Harry nodded, "Of course it was all over the papers".

Dumbledore started saying grimly, "I do not need to foist upon you the ramifications of these death eaters breaking out of Azkaban. They are the worst of his followers. with them back, he has increased his strength many fold. I have heard reports that Tom himself is planning to leave Wizarding Britain to find more followers. His forces already outnumber us. With even more followers at his side, the balance tips a bit more his way. I wanted to discuss with you both where we can get more people to fight for us knowing that we cannot resort to the methods adopted by Tom."

Harry asked him, "Professor, what can you tell me about our forces?"

Dumbledore nodded, "We have about 250 competent Aurors. Maybe 50 more wizards most of whom are not fighters."

Harry smiled, "Professor in addition to those you mentioned, we have about 50 students who have been training as hard as they can. Remus has been raising a force of 40 werewolves at the Rosier Estate. They would be useful in dealing with the werewolves on his side. In addition to that Monsieur Delacour had promised help to us. I received a letter from Viktor Krum who has promised to visit here next month. He is going to sign up with Puddlemere United. I am hopeful of him adding at least 40 more wands to our numbers. Taken together, we can have a distinct advantage if we choose the battlefield which we already have. This castle will be the ground for battle. The Order of the Snow Leopard is now working on developing strategy to be followed in case the castle is besieged."

Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling, "The Order of the Snow Leopard? Named after your magnificent Animagus form, I presume?"

Harry was gaping at him, "Did Professor McGonagall tell you about this?"

Dumbledore chuckled, "No. The day you achieved your transformation, the centaur Firenze was in that part of the Forbidden Forest. He was keeping an eye on you as it happened. Later he sent a message to me about it. I must admit that I was surprised with your achievement. How long did you work on it?"

Harry grinned, "About 2 months, professor."

Neville asked him, "Two months? And you didn't tell me about it that day?"

Harry grinned at him, "I don't remember Professor McGonagall asking me about it. I suppose that she suspected it since the term started."

Dumbledore nodded, "Indeed. She has framed the picture you sent her for Yule. She has it proudly displayed on her desk in her office."

When he left the Head Master's office, Harry was thinking about where he could find more wizards to join his side. True he had said all that to Dumbledore but he had a feeling that he would need a few more wands before all was said and done. They would need a lot more than those he already had. If money could get him the desired help, he would have emptied all his vaults. But it seemed that people would either fight for their freedom or not and no amount of money would ever change that.

**The Room of Requirement**

"Hello everyone. Welcome back. A lot has changed since our last session. I presume that you all know about everything that has come to pass in the previous few weeks. It has all been in the papers and, if I do say so myself, the reports have been pretty accurate. With Tom coming out into the open, the threat of death eaters has increased. We need more than just knowledge of single spells to defend ourselves. I think that it is time to introduce Spell-chains to you. Spell-chains are useful when your opponent can cast a decent shield, provided you have put a shield breaking charm between two spells in a chain. To cast a spell chain, beginners put those spells together where the end wand movement for one spell is the starting wand movement for another. For example if the first spell is ending with a counter-clockwise circle then the next spell can be one that starts with a half-circle, a quarter circle or a counter-clockwise circle. As you become proficient at casting, you can chain any two spells together", Harry finished explaining spell-chains to the students gathered in the Room of requirement.

With that, he showed them a few spells that could be put into chains. He set them to practice. Everyone was being diligent, trying to cast it. Harry knew it would take some time for them to get used to it. There was a lot that they had to do before they would be able to put them together. Harry didn't have the heart to break it to them that most of them would be fighting in the final battle.

Aside from the final battle, there was something which was starting to trouble him. OWLs were coming. Hermione was fretting. She was forcing them to schedule time for study. Ron had succumbed to the pressure. Neville had escaped by saying that he would study with Hannah. She did not even bother to ask Harry. Besides, he and Susan spent many hours studying in the library, often in groups with others joining them.

Harry was watching the students cast, noticing improvements in their casting and making notes as to who could lead their own groups if they had to.

This task had been delegated to Hermione. He was curious to know if her assessments matched his. He was also looking for people who could take orders from him and carry them out.

The twins could do it for sure. They would not lead two groups however but stay together. He needed Ronald, Hermione, Susan, Neville and Hannah to stay with him in the final battle at least until he was able to kill the dementors. He remembered that Achala had told him to keep those around who could cast patroni when he was using the spell to kill the dementors.

"Harry, have you thought about letting us duel with you?", Eddie Carmichael was asking him.

Harry looked at him quizzically, "Are you sure that's what you want Eddie?"

He said, "At least that way we would know how much we still need to learn."

Harry pondered over it for a minute before he acquiesced, "Alright. I guess I can duel with a couple of you, one at a time just to see how good you are."

With that, the floor was cleared for Eddie and Harry. Before the duel started, Harry told him, "The duel will be non-lethal spells only. I do not want you to injure me." Of course he had said the last part in jest because everyone knew that the chances of Eddie getting a hit on Harry were almost non-existent.

Harry started the duel with a powerful bludgeoner at Carmichael. He flipped backward twice with the impact. He groaned mightily before others hauled him up. But the boy had some fortitude that he was ready for another round despite wincing from pain.

He sent a petrification hex at Harry which Harry swatted aside with his wand. Eddie started sending bludgeoners, petrification hexes, stunners at him in rapid succession but Harry kept swatting them aside as if they were nothing more than a minor inconvenience to him. When he had enough, he sent a powerful stinger at the boy who yelped with the impact. The next moment, he found himself to be hanging upside down by his ankle.

Harry released him a second later. He crumpled. Harry turned to the other students, "Would anyone else like a go?"

**Unknown Castle**

"They need a lot of rest and potions to be of any use to you my lord. That could take a month, or year, depending upon how much the Dementors affected them. I have seen all of them. I can confidently say that everyone except Bellatrix will be fine again. She, however, was never sane in the first place", said the healer who had been treating the escaped death eaters. 14 years in Azkaban had been bad for their sanity. Voldemort had to know if they could be of any use to him or if his labors had been for naught. Of course he knew that Bella was insane even before she went to Azkaban. There was a reason that she was his most trusted lieutenant.

"You do what you are trained to do, healer. If the need be, I will treat them by necromancy myself. You do what is your work here. Do not care about other details which are mine to bother about", he drawled.

As the healer withdrew, he raised his voice, "Parkinson."

Guinevere Parkinson entered the room. She bowed low before him, "My Lord?"

Voldemort noticed that Parkinson had not kissed the hem of his robes. He knew that most of the death eaters were getting wary of him now but having been bound to him by magic, they could not abandon him. Most of them had started treating Voldemort with light fingered contempt. While it was subtle to most but on the other hand it was easy enough to be discerned by others if they knew how to see it. His death eaters used to kiss the hem of his robes but recently, they had started to avoid it. Perhaps it was time that he reminded them what he did to those who tried to defy him.

He said coldly, "Parkinson, bring Malfoy to the courtyard of the castle."

Lucius Malfoy who had been broken out of the Island fortress had not been taken to the dungeons. He was kept in one of the lavish chambers however he was no better than a prisoner. Since he had arrived, he had been subjected to the Cruciatus curse five times a day. That had always been in private. Perhaps Voldemort wanted to kill him after making an example out of him for others. So he was being brought to the courtyard of the castle.

Goyle and Parkinson brought him to the courtyard of the castle, shackled in chains. They dumped him in the center of it before retreating. Every death eater in the castle was watching the spectacle with fear in their hearts. If Voldemort could kill one of those of his inner circle, he definitely could kill anyone of them.

Voldemort applied sonorous to his throat before he started speaking, "Lucius, I had trusted you. I gifted a memoir of mine to you to remember me by. I handsomely rewarded you for every service that you rendered to me. I took up residence in your manor as an honour to your house. I have been benevolent to you more than to most of my other faithful. What did you do? You renounced me the moment you were in the clutches of the ministry. Did you not trust your master to be powerful enough to break you out of Azkaban? I razed it to the ground for my faithful, Lucius. Yet you doubted me. You questioned my dreams of a pure-blood dominated world? I had explained to you all that no change of such magnitude can be caused without sacrifices. We had to kill those who oppose me. If my faithful would question my motives then how would the great dream of my noble ancestor Salazar Slytherin be fulfilled?"

The death eaters were hearing every word of his, hanging on to it. Voldemort was a silver tongue so most of them were swayed by his words. Many of those who had started to waver in their loyalties had their loyalties reaffirmed to him in that moment while there were still a few who had compunctions about him.

Voldemort was saying, "You have seen my benevolence, but you have not seen my rage. Today, I feel it is the moment to give you a taste of my anger to make sure that none of my followers would waver from their loyalties ever again."

With that he levelled his wand at Lucius. He started casting a multitude of torture curses at him like skin peeler, tissue dissolver and bone liquefiers. Malfoy's shouts and cries were heard by everyone in the castle. It shook most of them to their cores. The way the Dark Lord was torturing Lucius was enough to set his fear in their hearts. When he had cast a number of torture curses at Malfoy, he ceased casting for a few moments during which he seemed to be inspecting the faces of those around him. He was probably unsatisfied with what he saw because he again levelled his wand at Lucius. He shouted, "Crucio." The next minute was pure agony for Malfoy. With pain he bent double, his teeth chattering hard. He bit his own tongue. He had lost the ability to think after the torture curses only. Now he could not even cry or shout due to the intensity of pain being forced upon him.

Voldemort lifted his curse after a minute. He said, "You deserve to be punished for your words towards me Lucius but I am not without mercy for my followers. I am sparing your life. I will have the healers cure you. But one more instant of disobedience from you and it will be your last."

With that the healers rushed forward to carry the Lord Malfoy to the infirmary on conjured stretchers. They would need to use all their skill to save him, to ensure there was not any lasting damage or Voldemort would turn his wrath on them next.

Making a public spectacle of punishing Lucius was a none-too-subtle message to his followers. Voldemort would not take kindly to wavering loyalty from anyone. He would not hesitate to kill the insolent ones. They had seen what he did to Malfoy who had been his financier in the last war, his torture expert, one of the members of his inner circle. To see him being treated this way had etched the message into their brains.

**You make your choice**

As a part of the boon he had granted to Narcissa, Harry had one more thing left to do. He was not happy about it but he had to confront Draco Malfoy for once.

To this purpose, he chose a time when Malfoy was alone. Since most of his friends had abandoned him, he was mostly by himself. Even at the Slytherin table where he used to sit like a prince, he had been ostracized by those who were formerly his friends.

Hermione told him that he often had prefect patrols by himself. He had personally requested that the Head Boy not assign Pansy to any patrol with him. Harry had asked her when the ferret was going to be on patrol again. He told her that he was not going to trouble Malfoy.

On the day when Draco was patrolling the fourth floor, Harry simply appeared before him out of the shadows. Malfoy had his wand out in a trice. He sneered, "What do you want, Peverell?"

Harry scoffed, "Put that wand away, Malfoy. I would disarm you before you can get a shot at me."

Draco drawled, "What do you want?"

Harry pointed to an empty class-room, "Inside now. For your own good, we need to talk."

Malfoy had hesitations about walking inside but the look in Harry's eye and the steel in his voice made him do as he was told. When he entered, Harry followed behind him, locking the door and erecting privacy wards. After they made themselves comfortable, he turned to Malfoy, "This conversation is not happening between Harold Peverell and Draco Malfoy. This is between Lord Black and his ward. I am going to ask a few questions. I want you to answer them honestly."

Draco didn't say anything. Harry was miffed but chose to let it slide this time. He continued, "The first question is, who are you loyal to Draco?"

Draco drawled, "I don't care for the Dark Lord. I care only about my family. My father is in prison courtesy of you and Sirius Black. Do you come here as a pretender?"

Harry said sternly, "That isn't the answer to my question. I'm not in the mood to sit and bicker with you. Narcissa sent me a letter to ask a boon of me. I have promised your mother that I will protect you from harm provided that you do not go attacking any of my friends. that is the reason that I am here. Now answer my question ".

Draco sneered, "I am loyal to my family only. My father did some things wrong. my family name is mud now. I am not fighting for anyone nor will I do anyone else's bidding."

Harry nodded, "What if your father ordered you to serve the Dark Lord?"

Malfoy frowned, "If he did that, I would have to refuse. Mother made me see some reason that I should not harbor prejudices against anyone but it does not mean I am suddenly a Saint. I will stay away from this conflict."

Harry understood where he was coming from. He addressed him again, "Malfoy, if you stay away from any of those who are opposing Voldemort, I promise that we will stay out of your way. You can finish your education; live your life as you wish. However, if you follow that maniac, you will suffer the same fate as your father. I have come to know that your father has been made to renew his faith in his dark lord through torture. I have no doubt that he will throw his life away in the final battle. When he fights on Voldemort's side, he will be killed."

Draco looked like he wanted to attack Harry when he finished speaking however he slumped down after a few moments, "Mother and I talked about it. Mother said that father did things which may land him in Azkaban in the future or maybe death at the hands of an Auror. We have actually accepted that it would happen. Mother was distraught with the thought but for me, I am going to do what I find would be in my best interests."

Harry nodded, "Our business here is done then. Remember your promise to stay away from the conflict. If you do that one thing, you will not be persecuted by anyone."

With that, Harry took down the wards and walked out of the room. As he turned a corner, he simply disappeared.

**Constant vigilance!**

One evening, Harry decided to test the members of his order. He knew they needed to be at their best if they were to survive in the oncoming war. He decided to start with his friends. If those who were always around him were not vigilant enough, he couldn't very well expect anyone else to be vigilant.

The first to be tested was Fay Dunbar. She and Ellia Runcorn were out on the grounds near the Forbidden Forest. Harry disillusioned himself and walked towards them carefully so that they would not be able to hear him coming.

When he was just behind them, he summoned his wand to his hand from his wand holster. Inaudibly, he shot a stunner. It seemed that Fay had sensed something. Before the stunner could connect with her, she had ducked. The stunner passed through the space where she had been a moment ago. However that was not all for Fay Dunbar. As she ducked, she had her wand in hand. She lifted the disillusionment charm from him.

Before she could fire another spell, he called out firmly, "Halt."

She instantly stopped and sheathed her wand again.

Ellia Runcorn asked him, "What are you doing?"

Harry however was talking to Fay, "I was testing your attentiveness to your surroundings. I am pleased that you are paying attention to everything around you. What gave me up?"

She gave him a half smile, "Thank you for the praise, Harold. You had not silenced your feet. Your footsteps were too loud. Besides I heard the rustling of the spell. I barely had time to duck."

He nodded, "You won't find me that loud the next time. Now would you help me with something?"

She eagerly nodded. Harry started telling her his plan. When he was done telling, she was grinning in anticipation of the fun.

That night, Hermione Granger had been in bed for 10 minutes when she heard someone pulling open the curtains around her bed. She had her wand on her bed-side table. Before she could reach it, there was a wand pointed at her, pushing her into her bed. Since there was no light in the dormitories, she could not see who it was. What she was certain about was that the assailant was a girl about her age. She had a cloth covering her face and she had draped a baggy robe around her body so that Hermione could not make a guess about her identity by her mannerisms such as posture, her body shape etc. The voice was a harsh one, one even more snide and contemptuous than Draco Malfoy however without the usual venom in it. The figure growled, "Don't even try to speak, Granger. One word from your mouth and I will not hesitate to silence you for good. I'm going to finish off your dorm mates while you get to watch. I'll deal with you last."

Before Hermione could do anything, the figure had petrified her and bound her to her bed with an incarcerous. After she was done tying Hermione up, she turned to the other girls. Hermione could not move any part of her body but her eyes. She noticed that Fay's and Ellia's beds were empty and unkempt. There were signs of struggle. She figured that the assailant had already dealt with those two. Now the figure was hovering over Lavender's bed. While Hermione watched in horror, the stranger fired an emerald green curse at Lavender's bed. Hermione could not believe her eyes. Someone had just killed Lavender Brown while all Hermione could do was watch.

Parvati however proved to be a tough nut to crack. As the assailant turned her wand towards Parvati's bed, a pillow flew out of the bed hitting her squarely in the face. Before the assailant could understand what had happened, Parvati was out of her bed with her wand held in front of her. She banished the assailant towards a wall and sent a finite at Hermione.

As Hermione was free, she picked up her wand and fired a bone breaker at the assailant. She was seeing red. She wanted to hex this girl into oblivion who had just killed three of her dorm mates in cold blood.

Hermione was about to cast a nasty curse at the assailant before she spoke in the voice of Fay Dunbar, "Hermione, don't shoot. It's me, Fay."

Hermione growled, "Why did you kill your own dorm mate? Have you pledged your loyalty to Voldemort?"

Fay snapped, "Hold your horses, Granger. And don't you dare to make such an allegation. His followers killed my father. I would die defying him rather than bow to him. Lavender is not dead. It was just a colour changing spell."

Hermione motioned to Parvati, "Go check her, Parvati."

Parvati cautiously trudged over to Lavender's bed. She pulled open her curtains. There was Lavender, sleeping oblivious to the world around her. Parvati poked her with her wand a couple of times but she just grunted and went back to sleep.

Hermione did not lower her wand, "Now speak, Fay. What is this all about?"

Fay told her about everything that had happened during the day. When she was done telling, she said further, "He wanted me to see how attentive you are. I am disappointed to say that you could not sense me before it was too late. Lavender will be reported as a lost case. Parvati would get full marks.

Hermione turned to Parvati, "How did you know there was an intruder?"

Parvati grinned, "I am a light sleeper so I heard your squabble with her. I was freaked out when I saw her using that green colored spell but then I remembered that you cannot cast an unforgivable inaudibly so I knew she was not an enemy. If she was an enemy, I would not have hit her with a pillow but a solid block of stone to disfigure her pretty face."

Hermione turned to Fay, "Where did you get that robe? Also where is Ellia?"

Fay grinned, "This is not a robe but my bed sheet. Ellia is breaking curfew to go meet her boyfriend, Adrian Pucey."

The next day, in the Room of Requirement, the students were still working on spell chains. She had been glaring daggers at him. Harry understood what was happening. He ordered everyone to stop practicing for the time being. When they all halted, he started speaking, "Yesterday, I sneaked up on Fay Dunbar. she was none the wiser. I was disappointed that she had not learned the basic lesson of Constant Vigilance. On my instructions, she tested her dorm-mates. it is disappointing that bar one none of them were successful. I have talked to all of you about Constant Vigilance ever since we started this training group. It is time I see that you learned your lessons. It was fifth year Gryffindor girls's turn yesterday and it can be any of you next. The importance of Constant Vigilance is evident to anyone who can see what is going on in the world yonder. So, be alert."

**The prefect's pranked**

It had been weeks since there had been a spectacular prank. Harry felt that he was overdue. First, he had to decide who would be the next victim. After having pranked the whole school at once, it was nigh impossible to top with another one.

He thought hard. He decided that since they had not pranked the Prefects yet, it was about time. For a change, they would start with the Hufflepuff Prefects rather than their perennial favorites, the Slytherin Prefects.

For this project, he chose Neville as his henchman (Of course he was to be one considering one of those about to be pranked was his girl friend), along with Justin and Kevin Entwhile. He enlisted all of the Hufflepuff boys in his year except Ernie, Wayne Hopkins and Zacharias Smith, of course. Ernie was the prefect to be pranked while Wayne was best friend of Zacharias. He would not agree to anything Harry wanted to do. He did not involve Susan in it because she was Hannah's best friend. She may have tried to stop him from indulging in any of the pranks.

The idea was simple. They had to prank them whenever they got a chance. First it was Ernie. For him they simply did one thing. Harry summoned a lock of hair from Lilith Moon which he mixed in a mouthful of polyjuice potion which he gave to Kevin to drink.

Kevin, after he changed himself into Lilith, met him on the seventh floor near the Room of Requirement where Ernie was on patrol. Ernie was surprised to see Lilith out of her common room after curfew because she was not one to break any rules.

The biggest problem for Kevin was that polyjuice would only change appearance. It did not confer habits, gestures or any special knowledge about the person. Ernie asked her, "What are you doing here, Lilith?"

She (Kevin) dragged him into a broom cupboard without saying anything. Perhaps they had explored a few broom closets together because Ernie wordlessly followed her inside. He failed to notice the wand that poked into his ribs. Before he realized what was happening, he had been stunned. With that, Kevin locked the broom cupboard from outside and walked away. Disguising himself as a female was a distasteful thing but there was no other way to make Ernie follow him without getting suspicious.

Next day, Ernie was glaring daggers at Lilith when they were at the Gryffindor table. Harry cautiously asked him, "Mate, what happened? Why are you trying to kill her with your glare?"

In an undertone, Ernie told him how Lilith had duped him last night. Others wanted to laugh but they didn't. Lilith noticed Ernie was looking agitated. She came to their table to sit with them.

She asked Ernie directly, "Why are you trying to kill me, boyfriend of mine?"

Ernie seethed, "As if you hadn't stunned me then left me locked in the broom cupboard last night."

Neville asked him, "So you trusted her. You followed her into a broom cupboard without even knowing if it was her? Is that your constant vigilance, Ernie?"

Lilith was telling him, "I was not out of my common room last night. I was sitting with Tracy and Daphne talking about OWLs which are coming up soon. We have to be ready for our exams after all."

Harry tried to be helpful, "Maybe it was someone else mate. Someone who wanted to prank you. You didn't notice."

Ernie nodded, "I guess you're right, Harry.". He turned to Lilith, "I am sorry to have doubted you."

Lilith smiled then waved him off, "It's alright, love. I would have been duped the same way as you if I were in your place."

The second prefect was Hannah. For her, Harry had deferred to Neville telling him that since she was his girl friend, he had to do it.

Neville thought long and hard about it before he decided on the prank. It was pretty simple. He would not draw her ire… much. After all, he wanted to keep all of his limbs.

He gift wrapped a perfume he had ordered from Diagon Alley. There was a dung bomb just under the wrapping. It was rigged so that as soon as she opened the package, it would go off peppering her with smelly debris. When he told Harry about what he planned to do, Harry silently said a prayer for Neville's well being.

The next day, an owl landed before Hannah when she was on the way to the library. It was packed in a beautiful pink coloured parchment. Below the recipient's name a line was scrawled, 'To the witch who made my life beautiful'.

Smiling to herself, she opened the package. *BOOM*, she was peppered with debris. The stench of dungbomb was intolerable and it filled her nostrils. She had to run to the Prefect's Bathroom to get a scented bath while making plans for Neville Longbottom's painful demise.

When she was finally clean, she went to find Neville Longbottom in the Greenhouses where he was working on Devil's snare. She gave a guttural cry and started sending hexes at him. Neville however was more than her match. With a few well-placed, well-timed stunners, he had her under control before she could destroy the Greenhouses. Unfortunately it was too late and Professor Sprout banned them from the Greenhouses in perpetuity except their classes.

Harry, who had been hovering nearby to see what she did to him, was disappointed when he escaped without being hexed. He carefully enervated Hannah and asked her to not make a scene right there. She followed them to the Mermaid's Sanctuary where she again whipped her wand out to start hexing him. Harry was silently cheering for her but she did not cast a hex. She rather asked Neville tersely, "Was it your idea of a prank to pelt your own girl friend with a dungbomb?"

Neville had the audacity to grin, "It was just a prank. And I added a bottle of perfume to get rid of the stench, didn't I?"

They stopped their quarrel. Harry was disappointed.

The next were the Ravenclaws. It was easy to prank them. He hexed Anthony to sing Soprano every time he opened his mouth to say something. He hexed Padma to keep changing her appearance every 10 minutes. Since Anthony could not undo the prank, he applied a silencing spell on himself. He had to spend 3 hours waiting for the hex to wear off. Padma got rid of her problem within 20 minutes after she had met Dumbledore. Dumbledore asked her if she wanted the one responsible to be punished, she refused telling him that all it had done was to get some laughs. There had been nothing demeaning about those pranks.

That evening, Harry was in the common room talking to Sirius in the fireplace when Hermione interrupted him, "Harry can I have a word?" He noticed that Ron was with her and they both looked anxious.

Harry nodded. They took chairs beside him and he asked her, "What has got you both so worried?"

Hermione flatly asked him, "Are you pranking the prefects?"

Harry looked at her incredulously, "Hermione! I am offended that you would even think such a thing. Why would I prank you both?"

Hermione waved him off, "I know you better than that, Harry. You may have had your minions doing your bidding, but it was your brain behind it. I just want to know why you are doing this."

Harry sighed, "Hermione, I am not complicit in this. Please do not tarnish my reputation."

Ron snorted, "Yeah, right! Just so you know mate, if someone pranks us, we are coming after you."

Harry knew he would prank them but he had to do without letting others know. He suddenly remembered that he had a lackey that no one knew about. Peeves the poltergeist had vowed to do his bidding whenever he wanted to. Summoning Peeves in an empty room, he gave him the necessary orders.

Two days later when Hermione returned to her bed after a late night patrol, she asked Ron to make sure that Harry was indeed in his bed. She retired to sleep. As she entered her own bed, she could smell that there was a pungent odor coming from her quilt. She lit her wand to inspect. She found that her bed had been laden with stink pellets. They were the source of the smell and her bed was defiled with the stink. What was worse, it seemed to have got into her clothes when she laid on the bed.

Fay, who had not gone to sleep yet, was laughing. When she glared, Fay raised her hands in surrender, "I had nothing to do with it, Hermione. Neither did Harry. It was Peeves who covered your bed with these pellets. He was here up to a minute ago. I didn't interfere fearing for myself."

For Ron, it was simple. When they were in Flitwick's class revising the locomotor charm, Harry said, "This class has become boring. I'm so hungry; I swear I could eat a hippogriff."

Ron nodded in agreement, "I couldn't eat enough at breakfast."

Harry produced a batch of cauldron cakes from his bag. He took the first one for himself. He offered one to Ron, "Take it and gobble it in one go, mate. If Flitwick catches us eating in his classroom, he'll put us in detention."

Since Harry had eaten one of those cauldron cakes himself, there was no reason to suspect anything. Ron downed it in one go. About a minute later, he felt a strong desire to profess his love for Hermione.

He looked around to find Hermione. She was immersed in listening to something Flitwick had just said. He turned to Harry, "Mate, am I looking decent?"

He had such a funny expression on his face that Harry had a hard time to keep himself from laughing. He told him, "Yeah Ron. You're looking very smart but why are you asking?"

He said dreamily, "I feel like I need to tell Hermione that I love her. Where is she?"

Neville was alarmed at his behavior. He held him back by his collar hissing, "Oi Ron. You will end up getting laughed at. Talk to her later when we are in the Common Room."

Ron, it turned out, was not going to wait for later. Neville restrained him with great difficulty. When the class was over, Ron ran after her yelling, "Hermione, wait. I need to say something to you".

Hermione glared at him, "Honestly Ron! I am not running away. I am right here. You did not need to shout."

Ron however was not listening. He conjured a bouquet of roses for her. He went down on one knee presenting it to her before every one, "Hermione Jean Granger, I love you."

Hermione was blushing hard but controlled her blush. She accepted the bouquet from him. The twins who had witnessed the spectacle were whistling. George was saying "Where did little Ronnikins get the guts to be a Gryffindor enough to do something so openly?"

Fred added, "I suspect it is the influence of a Love Potion."

Hermione looked at them skeptically. She seemed to think things over for a moment before she took Ron's hand. She started dragging him to the Infirmary to ask Madam Pomfrey to check if Ron had been given a love potion.

In the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey was tending to some first years who had a potion accident. When Hermione brought Ron in, she asked, "Oh dear! What's all this? You both seem to be in fine shape. Why are you both here?"

Hermione hesitated a little while telling her. Even if he was under the influence of a potion, Ron had been complimenting her all the way up to the infirmary. It kind of felt nice to hear him speak so nicely to her. He ordinarily would not have been so open with his feelings. But she had to get it countered because if she did not and something happened, they would end up getting laughed at.

She was holding onto his arm while he just kept chattering away. She turned to the mediwitch, "Madam Pomfrey, I fear someone has given him a love potion."

Poppy Pomfrey frowned, "Love Potion! No one is permitted to brew them in the castle except Severus Snape. Did he give it to him?"

Hermione shook her head, "No. We didn't even have a Potions Lesson today. Love Potions aren't taught before sixth year anyway."

Poppy nodded, "Let me get him some antidote. Maybe he can tell us then."

She pulled a small vial out of her potions cabinet. She handed it to him, "Here Mr. Weasley, drink it. It is a rejuvenation draught."

Hermione coerced him into drinking the potion. His eyes rolled up into his head for a minute before he blinked and came to himself again. Madam Pomfrey smiled, "Welcome back, Mr. Weasley."

He however had turned to Hermione, "What happened? Why are we here?"

Hermione replied, "You were dosed with a love potion. Do you remember anything that happened? Who gave it to you? Do you remember anything you did?"

Ron said uncertainly, "Harry and me were eating Cauldron Cakes in Flitwick's class. I remember I got on my knees and… Did I propose to you?"

"Oh yes! You did. It was quite spectacular. You have set the bar high Ron", said Harry who had just entered the Hospital wing behind them.

Hermione turned to him, "Harold Peverell! What did you give to him? How did you dose him with love Potion?"

Harry raised his hands in a pacifying gesture, "Hermione, I did not. I was thinking the same. I realized that he started behaving differently after he ate that cake." He produced a packet of cakes, "Here, I have brought them here to get them inspected so I would know for certain that they were not filled with Love Potion."

Madam Pomfrey took the packet from him. She checked two of them before she shook her head, "These do not have any potion in them, Miss Granger".

What Hermione did not know was that the love potion was indeed brewed by Severus Snape who kept samples in his office. Those had been nicked from his office by the twins who had sold it to Justin Finch-Fletchley who sold it to Entwhile who sold it to Harry. He had dosed only one of the cakes with it. There was no trace of evidence left to point the finger at him.

There was no reason for the prank other than the prank itself. Unknown to Harry, preparations were being made to prank Harold Peverell. The students generally agreed that if they did not prank him that it would look bad on them. Yes he was very attentive but there must be some way that they could pull one over on him. For now they were looking for students who could help them. They were not above seeking help even from the Slytherins.

**Unknown Castle**

Voldemort was sitting with his inner circle in the meeting room of the castle. Most of those from his inner circle were there including Lucius Malfoy. Voldemort wanted to kill him and be done with it, but the erstwhile Lord of Malfoy was the perfect one to demonstrate his displeasure on, send a message to his followers if they strayed away from their loyalty towards him.

He looked at his followers sitting around him. He could see that most of them were missing. The first whose absence he felt acutely was Barty Crouch Junior. He had been instrumental in getting him returned to a body but he had been taken prisoner. He had set Severus to find out about him and Severus told him that he had been thrown through the veil after the unspeakables made some use of him. They had studied his dark mark to make those wards which guarded the Ministry of Magic now.

The next who's absence he felt most was Rosier. It was almost ironic that Rosier was his follower while the grandson of his brother was his nemesis. The Rosier lord was a competent fighter. He had almost killed Alastor Moody before he did.

There was Karkaroff who had turned traitor. He sent many of his followers to prison. The coward had fled immediately after he had been resurrected. He had given him a place of honour and Karkaroff had betrayed him.

There was Regulus Arcturus Black, the son of House Black who was loyal to him. He had served with the fanaticism of a worshipper, always ready to do his bidding.

Lastly there was the rat. True that he was a worthless, talentless thing but he had his uses. If he had lived, Voldemort could have used him to spy on the ministry for him.

Crabbe was also missing. There was no word to indicate if he had been captured or killed. He had disappeared when he was sent to scout St. Mungos and never heard from again.

He had lost too many of his best followers. What had he got in return? Several demented death eaters who were not in the best fighting shape right now. If they would ever be in that position was not something he knew but he would make them useful again.

"My Lord, what are our orders?", the drawl of Severus Snape attracted his attention.

He turned to him, "For now, you have to lie low with others. We are not yet in position to openly fight. We need to take the ministry before we move on to Hogwarts. For now, we need to sow terror again as we did in the past."

He turned to Macnair, "I have a job for you Walden. I want you to take one of the giants. Go rampaging through the countryside in Yorkshire. Ruin everything. Kill anyone you come across. By the time this day is over, I want them to fear my name again. Take as many death eaters as you want. Remember I will not take it kindly if you or any of our followers get caught or die."

Macnair stood and left the room. He turned to Parkinson, "Guinevere, you will lead a raid in Manchester in the hidden wizarding shopping district there. The Ministry is yet to provide for ample security there. Go in, kill some. Then disapparate away before the Ministry can retaliate. You will do the same to a few places before you return here. I want no holds barred."

As they were all sent away, he turned to Severus, "Severus I feel that there is a spy in our midst who is sharing our information with the other side. I want you to find out the identity of said spy. When you do, kill him without hesitation. I also want you to find out if you can slip some draught of living death to the boy and bring him here before me."

Severus was incensed at his audacity. He drawled, "The boy can detect any sort of poison. He can identify a potion by its colour. He is admittedly better at it than me. He is always surrounded by a lot of students not to mention he can out duel anyone, my lord. It is not a plausible plan."

Voldemort dismissed him telling him to keep an eye on the brat. He was about to retire for the day when someone knocked on the door. In entered Bellatrix Nameless and the Lestrange Brothers.

She was dressed in an emerald robe with a little make up on her face. Her heavy lidded eyes were half closed. She had such an expression on her face as if she was in awe of him and his power. Since these three had a few good meals in them, they were all looking better except for the haunted look in their eyes but that would be gone within no time.

She bowed low then sat on her haunches before him purring, "My Lord! I am gratified that you came in person to release me from the prison."

Voldemort picked her up by her shoulders. She visibly shivered. He said to her in his most sickly sweet voice, "My dear Bellatrix! You are one of those who remained loyal to me. You went to Azkaban rather than deny your loyalty to me. I am not one to scorn such loyalty."

He released her. He turned to the Lestrange brothers, "I am pleased with all of you for your loyalty towards me. When we have won over the wizarding world, I will reward you all above any of my other followers."

**A/N- The first chapter was that bad? I mean just one review! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Yorkshire**

The day started out ordinary enough. The muggles were going about their business when a man, dressed in robes and wearing a mask appeared beside the road. With a gesture from the stick he was holding and a few nonsense syllables, a jet of green light flew from the stick. It struck a van that was parked at the side of the road, the vehicle exploded in a shower of burning metal.

Curious onlookers began to come out of the local shops to see what had caused the disturbance. With a pop, the man disappeared as mysteriously as he had appeared.

Mr. Clive who had seen the man disappear thought he was seeing things which were not there. No one could just vanish into thin air like that.

There was quite a crowd gathered around the burning wreckage that had been a panel van only a minute ago. As they were asking about what had happened, it was old Watson who started telling them what he saw. The old fellow had a talent for telling tales but his account was interrupted by a steady thudding that was getting louder. As the ground began to shake, a boulder came hurtling through the air and crushed a couple of the bystanders.

When they looked for the source of the ground shaking thunder and the flying boulder, they refused to believe their own eyes. It was something that they had only heard in legends. It was a giant! His Huge boulder-like head was higher than the two-story buildings on the street. Although his strides seemed unhurried, he was covering more ground than a running man could. He bent down to pick up a car in both hands. There was somebody in it!

The crowd screamed and started to run for cover as the car came hurtling through the air to land where they had just stood. A couple more people who weren't fast enough were crushed under the wreck and the driver was not much better off.

He tore up a lamp pole with each hand and started smashing vehicles, buildings and people. Nobody could out-distance the giant on foot. No building could stand up to his battering. The muggles who were able to get to their cars drove away as fast as they could. Fires were starting in some of the destroyed buildings.

A team of wizards from the Ministry's Department for Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures arrived on the scene. Their leader shouted at the giant, "Stop right there or we will have to put you down!"

The giant made to crush him under his foot but the wizard had the presence of mind to disapparate before the huge foot flattened him. The team responded by firing coordinated volleys of stunners at the huge head and they only succeeded in making the walking mountain angry. It had been a long time since any wizard in Britain had to battle a giant and they seemed to have forgotten that not only are they massive, their hides are also highly magic resistant. In any case, they needed backup to have any hope to stop this one and they put in a call to the ministry for help.

The raging giant charged at the wizards, trying to bat them with the lamp poles or crush them under his feet. They kept disapparating away and apparating at his back, continuing to pepper him with stunners and bombarda. They coordinated high-powered stingers, first at the giant's right eye, then at his left. Bellowing with rage and confusion, the giant dropped the lamp posts and tried to shield his eyes. In blind fury, he kicked out at the wizards who were tormenting him, catching one of them in the chest and head. The wizard tumbled backward and landed in a limp heap. Before the giant could attack the downed wizard again, his companions distracted him while one of the wizard's companions summoned the injured wizard from where he lay then sent him off to St. Mungo's with a portkey.

The spells were not bringing the giant down. They tried banishing large boulders and trees at him. He either swatted them aside or, much worse, caught them and hurled them back at his attackers. To their relief, so far, there were no death eaters present. Nor had any muggle law enforcement arrived. That was a good thing. The muggles would only be in harm's way. Death eaters would certainly complicate things.

With a loud crack, a team of ten Aurors arrived. With the precision of hard practice, they spread out in a semi-circle. On a signal from their leader, they let loose with a volley of high-powered bombarda. The giant was knocked back from the impact, but barely harmed. The giant bellowed with rage. Picking up a large tree with both hands, he swept the Aurors with a single swing. They saw the blow coming with the horrible slow-motion inevitability of a nightmare. They disapparated at the last possible moment to apparate at the giant's back and fire again.

One of the wizards from the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures got the idea that firing a stunner directly into the giant's ear might bring him down. Perhaps moved to rage at the destruction of his fellow wizard, he acted on the impulse and apparated to the giant's shoulder. Before he could test his theory, the giant plucked him off with his terrible crushing grip and hurled him to the ground with a sickening crunch. Not content with the wizard's death, the giant crushed the lifeless body under his massive foot. Another of them caught a piece of debris to his head and fell under a pile of falling rubble as a building collapsed.

The Aurors regrouped and started to conjure objects to bring down the beast. That was when about 30 death eaters arrived. The death eaters were casting killing curses in all directions. They were not there to engage the Aurors in duels. Before the Aurors even realised that the death eaters were there, a few of them were down. By the time the Aurors got wise, the death eaters had disappeared. That left 5 Aurors with about 6 employees of the Department of Care and Regulation of Magical Creatures dead. When the backup team arrived with the ministry Obliviation squad, the Giant was long gone and the Dark Mark was in the air trumpeting Voldemort's strike against the Ministry.

**Manchester**

The wizarding district in Manchester was not as huge or grandiose as Diagon Alley. It did not have the extensive security measures in place the way Diagon alley did either. A group of about ten masked figures appeared in the street causing immediate panic. People screamed and ran in all directions, trying to flee. The group of death eaters wasted no time. They fired off the killing curses at everyone they could see and set the buildings on fire. Taking only another second to place the dark mark in the sky, they vanished again. By the time the ministry Aurors arrived, they found people putting out fires or weeping over their murdered loved ones.

These scenes were repeated all over Britain. Magical communities, muggle communities, it didn't matter. Before the day was done, terror was a reality. About 20 wizards and witches plus another 30 muggles lay dead. Some were dead from the killing curse, meaning that they had no sign of how they were killed while others bore the grizzly reminders of what happens when a giant attacks. Some key places were fairly safe like Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, St. Mungo's and the ministry building. General Longbottom knew that if he was going to make people feel safe again, he had to find a more effective way to respond to attacks in other places.

**Hogwarts**

_**"Giant attack: 11 dead including 10 muggles, 15 injured**_

_Yesterday was a day which proved disastrous to the ministry forces when a Giant rampaged through the countryside in Yorkshire causing unprecedented destruction. The Aurors were dispatched to deal with it. Five of them were killed at its hands while 6 employees of the Department for Care and Regulation of Magical Creatures lost their lives. Muggle casualties were limited to only two. It has been reported that two more Aurors sustained serious injuries. About 13 more muggles were severely injured and may not live. The injured are being treated at St. Mungo's._

_While the giant attack was in progress, around 30 death eaters, in a cowardly hit and run raid, caused the majority of the deaths and vanished before they could be engaged in battle. The former executioner of the Ministry of Magic, Walden Macnair was reported to have been leading the death eaters._

_The department of Misinformation and the Obliviation Squads of the Ministry are working to obliviate every muggle who has seen the Giant while spreading misinformation that the damage and deaths were caused by a hurricane."_

This had been the news in the Daily Prophet with a picture showing the Giant tearing up lamp poles with one hand. Harry read the paper and sighed. He knew that they could have taken down the Giant if there were sufficient wizards on their side. He presumed that none of the Aurors or employees of the Department who were involved had ever faced a Giant before.

There was another headline on the lower half of the front page.

**"Death Eater raids: 10 dead, 5 injured**

_10 wizards died and 5 were grievously injured in a series of attacks in the hidden wizarding district in Manchester and in other similar remote places. _

_Before the ministry forces could retaliate or the Wizarding Patrols could intervene, the death eaters were gone. It is similar to their modus operandi of the previous war where the death eaters adopted Guerilla style warfare and had caused considerable damage to the morale of the Aurors and the people. _

_General Longbottom has promised severe retaliation for the attacks."_

Harry knew this would be a severe blow to the morale of the ministry forces. Having lost 31 lives in a day was a catastrophe. The ministry would have to retaliate heavily. He however did not understand why Dumbledore did not tell him anything about the attacks. Snape definitely would have told him.

He was also wondering why the mystics did not intervene. They definitely could have killed the giant.

**The Chamber of Secrets**

Harry was waiting for Vikram when he arrived in the Chamber. The first question which he asked of the older wizard was, "Why didn't the mystics intervene? They could have killed the giant."

Vikram sighed, "Harry, Guruji has asked us to not to intervene. We did our bit by training you but now it is your duty to do what you would. I can help you train and practice but that is all. Besides, there are only a handful of Mystics in Avalon right now since most of them have been called to Africa. We cannot be everywhere at the same time. Also your ministry Aurors would have questioned us if we intervened and they saw us."

Harry nodded, "I need your help with something Professor."

Vikram was very eager to help, "How can I help you?"

Harry asked him, "Can you help me find the lost Ravenclaw Diadem? We need to find it before it is too late. We lost 26 in a day. That is a tremendous loss. We cannot afford more of them."

Vikram nodded, "I think you should start with trying to find who had it last. I know for a fact that Rowena did not have it when she died. Her daughter had taken it from her. From that time, the history becomes untraceable. You would need to establish the links. Find what happened to her daughter, Helena."

Harry nodded. He knew this would need to be done in secret because if Tom got suspicious then he could move it away and they would be left with nothing. All he knew was the appearance of the room where the Diadem was. He needed to find it before it was too late.

Vikram was speaking, "Harry, how are your preparations for war going?"

Harry mused over things for a moment before he started speaking, "We are starting to divide the students into combatants, medics and those who can keep an eye on students we have evacuated. The contraption for the poison is almost ready and we will be using it extensively. For reasons of safety, I would rather that only some of the most trusted Aurors used them because if it got into the hands of the wrong people, it can wreck havoc on our forces. Seamus and his crew are quite proficient with the catapults. That will be an unpleasant surprise if any giants show up here and thanks to the Fidelius charm, they are guaranteed to remain a surprise."

Vikram was satisfied with the preparations, "it looks like you have almost everything covered Harry. I will point out if you are missing something. There is one piece of advice I would like to give you though. You should test your students to see how quickly they can respond to emergency situation. I believe you can summon them individually through the Protean Charm."

Harry nodded, "We might as well do it sooner than later. We want to be sure that they will respond quickly when called upon."

**A drill**

In the next session in the Room of Requirement, Harry caught hold of some of the students. These were not part of the order but some of those who had been training with him. He had sent messages to them before the session to stay back after the others were gone.

After everyone else was gone, he started addressing them, "I suppose that you are wondering why I asked all of you to stay back. The thing is that I need some help from you, that is if you are willing."

One of the muggle-born, Patrick Stewart, a sixth year Ravenclaw said, "Think nothing of it. Just let us know what we can do for you?"

Harry smirked, "I'm glad you asked. The thing is that I need to test you to see how quickly you can respond to my messages. That is, if I send a message to you through the wand holster attached to your arm, I want to see how soon you can arrive. This will be useful if I am planning something including you in it."

Patrick nodded, "When you need us, just send a message."

Another of them, a seventh year Hufflepuff asked, "How will we know if we are sleeping at the moment when you send us a message?"

Harry smirked, "The protean charm on them is tweaked to emit a buzz when I am sending such messages to you. You will know."

They agreed and left.

That night, two Hufflepuffs and two Slytherins got a message from Harry. It simply said, "I need you all at the Astronomy Tower in 10 minutes, armed for a duel. Do not get caught by Prefects."

At the same time, two Ravenclaws and two Gryffindors were getting a message, "I need you in the Dungeons within 10 minutes, armed for a duel. Do not be caught by the Prefects."

The badgers and the snakes were in the dungeons so they had to climb to the top of the castle while the lion and the claws were to descend to the lowest levels. Dumbledore had put more people on patrol that night. Harry told him that he was testing his students and asked the Headmaster to make the test somewhat more difficult. Dumbledore readily agreed.

In total there were 24 Prefects including the Head Boy and Head Girl. Their numbers were augmented by four teachers, Minerva, Vikram, Pomona and Filius had been put on duty to supervise that the prefects were not abusing their authority. Dumbledore himself was in the shadows keeping watch while he had the portraits and the ghosts watch the castle. In a way, there was simply no way for the students to go to the top of the castle or in the dungeons evading surveillance which had been laid out for them. Just to increase their troubles, Harry had asked Peeves to give trouble to the students.

To top it off, he had chosen two puffs who could not work together. These had some issues with each other and Harry knew that they would fare badly in battle if they could not rely on those who were fighting beside them.

The puffs were Gwendolyn Shaw and Rupert McNaughton. They hated each other. They had some squabble when they were in second year. Ever since then they had a grudge for each other. Harry knew about it because he had seen them being nasty to each other in his practice sessions.

Rupert barked, "What do you think you're doing Shaw?"

She snapped in reply, "Who do you think you are to ask? I can do whatever I want."

When they left the portrait hole, they met the snakes who were Harriet Jackson and Celeste De Angelo. They were said to be friends with each other. When they met the puffs, they greeted them jovially, "Hello you two. I guess you got the same message as us?"

They nodded, "Yes we did. Are you headed to the Astronomy Tower?"

They nodded and they grouped together. The snakes noticed how the two Puffs kept their distance from each other.

Harriet asked, "Are you two still squabbling? It's been four years."

Gwendolyn said, "That's right and he still hasn't apologized."

Rupert growled, "It wasn't me. I would have apologized if it was. I'm telling you again, I did not throw any dungbomb at you."

Before Gwendolyn could say anything, Celeste said, "It is about time you knew the truth. I know for a fact that Rupert didn't throw the dungbomb. It was Warrington."

Gwendolyn was unconvinced, "I don't believe it. You're lying."

She sighed, "I have nothing to gain by lying to you, Shaw. Believe what you want. Right now, let's concentrate on getting to the Astronomy tower. I would appreciate it if you would be quiet. If we are caught on the way due to your squabbling, I swear by Merlin that I will make your life hell."

Their first test came on the first floor where they almost ran into the Hufflepuff sixth year prefects. It so happened that they were ascending the moving stair cases when they heard voices and they realised they were about to be caught.

Making a decision in that moment, they cast disillusionment charms on each other though Rupert refused to let Gwendolyn do it so Celeste had to do it for him. They were done at the last possible second. As they finished applying the charms, they could hear the Prefects coming.

As the Prefects turned a corner, they were hiding in dark corners. When the Prefects passed them, the Puffs stunned them.

On the second floor, they had no problem. They did not encounter any prefects. They got lax until they ran into Vikram Rana who was on the lookout for them. They employed the same tactic with him but being a mystic and sensitive to magic, he could feel that they were there under disillusionment charms.

When he stopped the students tensed for a moment. He cautiously moved his hand forward to grab hold of them when suddenly he went rigid. There was Elsa Kuruvilla behind him, grinning with her wand held out in front of her. Profusely thanking her, they went forward. They were almost caught by Professor McGonagall who was prowling in her cat form. Since it was not very bright, Gwendolyn tried to pick up the cat to pet it thinking it was one of many which roamed around the castle when suddenly Rupert had to pull her hand back hissing in her ear, "That's McGonagall."

She shuddered slightly. Before she could do anything else, there was a dull thud and the cat fell to the ground. The students had enough presence of mind to keep their faces hidden because someone among them had only petrified her.

Their real test came on the sixth floor where they had to duel with some masked men. There were a few more of them going towards the seventh floor. They realised that Harry had asked them to help because the school was under attack!

The masked men didn't have an aversion to using some of the borderline dark spells against them. They did not give them time to retaliate. The four kept dodging while they waited for a lull to begin casting. When it did not come, they exchanged glances and decided some strategy among them.

Gwendolyn who was near to Rupert cast a shield which covered both of them and he dropped his shield. This had the benefit of having him shielded while he fought with them. Their opponents had not visualised such strategy so two of them were down before they could adapt. By the time they were ready to retaliate, Celeste and Harriet stunned them.

When they were sure that their opponents would not suddenly get up and start casting again, Rupert said, "Let's see who is under those masks."

Harriet shook her head, "Let's bind them in ropes and leave. We do not have much time left."

When they finally did reach the Astronomy Tower, it had been 15 minutes. When they burst into the open, two of them were stunned from behind. When the other two turned around, they were stunned by someone who had been standing under disillusionment charm.

The claws and lions didn't do too badly. The lions were friends with each other and they knew that Harry or someone would definitely be lying in wait for them somewhere in the castle.

Harry struck them before they thought he would. They had just exited the portrait hole and were on their way to the dungeons when the twins appeared before them grinning, "Are you fine lads breaking curfew?"

They were alert and started throwing stunning spells at the twins. Fred and George however were much better at casting and dodging. Besides they were unbeatable as a team than the likes of those two students. The twins made short work of them and then went off to find the Ravenclaws.

Elsa Kuruvilla had escaped detection by anyone until she reached the dungeons. When she was nearing the potions dungeon, she found herself hoisted by one ankle.

The other claw, Matthew Montgomery was cautiously sneaking forwards towards the dungeons when he was attacked by two of his house mates, Terry Boot and Mandy Brocklehurst. He duelled with them for some time before the fifth year Ravenclaw prefects found them.

Padma hailed them, "What are you all doing?"

Terry had the audacity to grin, "As it turns out, me and Mandy were duelling with Matthew here."

Padma snapped, "Why are you all duelling? Not to mention breaking curfew?"

Glances were exchanged between them and Terry who had his wand in his hand sent an inaudible stunner at Anthony. Padma, who realised in the nick of time, what he was doing, had stunned Mandy. Matthew escaped in the chaos of the situation. He also came upon Elsa who was hoisted upwards down by her ankle and released her. Together they cautiously walked forward towards the Dungeons when Susan met them.

She was grinning, "You both did well. This was a test to see if you could swiftly respond to the situation. You were about 2 minutes late. I don't think Harry will think badly of you for this. You can return to your dorms now."

In the meanwhile, Padma had been backed up by Hermione Granger who just happened to be passing through that floor on her patrol. She helped Padma bring down Terry who was the last one standing. After Terry was subdued, Padma waited for Matthew to return. They got Elsa as a bonus. Hermione and Padma subdued them easily.

**Unknown Castle**

A meeting of Voldemort's inner circle was in progress. They gathered after they read the news in the Daily Prophet which boosted their morale. To think they had delivered such a blow to wizarding Britain in such a swift manner was euphoric for them and Voldemort. Most of them were starting to question their loyalty to Voldemort, they knew that they could not openly question him unless they wanted to die.

Besides, Voldemort had his own uses for them. If he ever was able to take over the Ministry, they would have their run of Wizarding Britain and would be free to do whatever they pleased. He might be half-blood but he was feared by the light. They could cash in on his reputation to get whatever benefit they could.

"The Giant attack has destroyed the Ministry's morale a good bit", Voldemort was saying, "They will not be foolish enough to take me lightly for some time now. In the mean while I have some work to do. I want you all to sow terror in the heart of the ministry for me. Do what you can and do not hesitate to kill as many as you can. However remember that Harold Peverell has to be killed only by me."

Bellatrix asked, "Master what will we do about our followers? They cannot fight the Aurors and win against them."

Voldemort turned his cold gaze towards her, "Now that you mention it, Bella, you are to take over the training of my faithful. Teach them to be ruthless. Teach them to kill. Teach them to win. You may use whatever means you wish to motivate them to greater efforts. I expect that you can improve their showing against the ministry attack dogs. In the meanwhile, I shall be out of Wizarding Britain to recruit more followers."

He turned to Greyback, "Fenrir, you have served me well all these years. I need you to spread fear of my name in Wizarding Britain. Make them fear me again. I will reward you most handsomely for your services. Dolohov, Rudolphus and Rabbastan will help you and you can use any many followers as you wish."

Fenrir smirked maliciously, "I will do your bidding, master."

Finally Rookwood said what the others did not want to, "Master, are we permitted to hunt the ministry officials and the order members in your absence?"

Voldemort sneered, "Kill as many of them as you can, Augustus. I especially want you to kill General Longbottom, his wife, Amelia Bones and every other blood traitor who dares to oppose our cause."

He turned to Severus, "Severus, you are to come to this castle once a week to gauge the progress of my followers. In the meanwhile keep Harold Peverell and Albus Dumbledore's attention away from us."

Severus curtly nodded, "Yes my lord."

Voldemort beckoned the wand-maker forward, "I want you to outfit my followers with wands. Parkinson will ensure that you get all the materials you require."

With that he dismissed the meeting. Since Severus was needed at the castle to convey the information to Dumbledore, he promptly took his leave while Bellatrix was still sitting at the table. He turned to her, "Bella, I want you to do a service for me about which Severus must know nothing."

She enthusiastically nodded, "I will do it, my lord."

He started speaking, "Bella, I assume that you have read the rubbish in the Daily prophet that mudbloods are descended from wizarding families. I want you to kill those mudbloods first."

She cackled, "It will be done, master."

The reason he did not want Severus to know about the attacks on the muggle-born was because Severus had once asked him a boon to spare Lily Potter. The attempt to grant that boon had been his undoing. Maybe Severus still harboured a foolish sentiment for the muggle-born and he would have told Dumbledore about it. He could not take any chances by giving too many secrets to the same person. Besides, if he kept giving secrets to different followers they would fight with each other to get his attention and that would keep them from plotting against him.

Voldemort also knew Bella was insane even before she was sent to prison. It was her insanity, her fervent devotion to him and her prowess with a wand along with the magic in her blood which made her amenable to Voldemort. She was the only witch in his inner circle and she had got that place due to her talents though lately Voldemort was feeling that she was not as powerful as she had once been. He would have to wait and watch to ascertain if his trusted lieutenant had lost her edge. What he did not know was that since her marriage had been dissolved and she had been ousted from the House of Black, the family magics had abandoned her. She was no better than a muggle born now. The only things left to her were her own personal brand of magic, her cruelty and her prowess with a wand. While she could not use family magics of any of the families anymore, she was still a dreaded witch. Whoever faced her would have the time of their lives trying to defeat her.

That evening, Voldemort left the unknown castle for other countries in Europe including Russia. He also intended to visit Transylvania to recruit the vampires to his cause. If they decided to join him, his forces would be augmented beyond imagination. In the past, he had sent his followers to try to recruit the leeches to his cause. They had refused saying that they were under threat of extinction by a renowned Vampire Hunter called Petrov. Voldemort was willing to kill this Petrov if he proved to be an obstacle to realising his dreams. He also had acquaintances in other countries, dark wizards who had studied Necromancy with him under Master Abaddon who lived in Ancient Greece.

Unknown to him, Petrov was busy exterminating Vampire Covens. In the last 6 months, he had destroyed 3 covens which had made the blood suckers fear his name. He had told them to humour Voldemort and host him under their roof but not commit to him. They were to send word to Petrov immediately. He was not going to kill Voldemort but could not resist the opportunity to cross wands with him.

That evening, he left Wizarding Britain. He expected that he may be abroad for the next two months. He would face some opposition but it had been a long time since he had faced some real challenge. He needed to sharpen his knives now before his eventual confrontation with Harold Peverell. He also needed to find his master Abaddon. He would be able to learn something more in Necromancy to win this war.

He had placed Bellatrix and Severus in charge of affairs. Bellatrix was to be in charge of training the troops and directing attacks on the members of the Order of the Phoenix. Severus would look after his followers and ensure that Dumbledore and Peverell could not get at them.

**Gringotts**

Ragnok was in his office when he received a letter from Albus Dumbledore. It read:

_"Greetings King Ragnok,_

_I am writing this letter after having been inundated by requests from several of my students who are called muggle-born. After the recent article published in The Daily Prophet regarding the Magical Ancestry of Muggle-born, I am writing to enquire if there is a way that the inheritance rituals can be conducted for these students in the school. What would b the cost of the tests and other related details? While I am determined to get this test done for them, this letter is just a humble enquiry into the matter and not to be taken as an offer._

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

_Order of Merlin, First Class_

_Head Master, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_Chief Warlock, Wizengamot_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards"_

Ragnok was amused. This letter brought lucrative opportunities for him since opening of vaults which had been closed for decades would speed up commerce. Yet they were bound by their own rules. The inheritance ritual could not be conducted unless the students were sponsored by someone. The cost of the test was considerable for the average earning wizards yet they were negligible for someone who was indisputably the richest wizard in Europe. Besides, the number of Vassals he had, the more power he would hold in Wizarding Britain.

Picking up a piece of parchment and a quill, he began to write a letter to one who was an ally of Gringotts, perhaps the first wizard to have been chosen for the honour. They were honour bound to work for the betterment of his interests and so would he.

**Rosier Estate**

In the entrance hall of the Rosier Estate, a witch was sitting in a chair near the fire place. This witch who was used to lavish comforts was now in solitude away from those who once crowded her and heaped praises on her. This witch was Narcissa Malfoy nee Black who was staying at the Rosier Estate since the night she had met with Harold Peverell in Hogsmeade.

Narcissa was worried. She knew that she was safe in the Rosier Estate but she was scared for Lucius. True, he was a death eater but he loved his family. He had always cared for them. She knew he would fight at the Dark Lord's side and would eventually die either at the hands of the Aurors or the death eaters if he tried to betray them. The Dark Lord was not one to take kindly to traitors.

She had meant to go back into hiding after Harry had granted her boon but he had made her stay back in Wizarding Britain and placed her directly under his watch. She of course knew Remus. The Marauders were only two years younger than her in school but she had never interacted with him before. He was the smartest of the Marauders who never engaged in a fight but sat on the sidelines.

When she came to the Rosier Estate, he showed her to a chamber upstairs which was lavishly decorated. She was allowed to keep her elf with her but Harry forbade her from trying to contact Lucius. He said that doing so could jeopardise Lupin's safety as well as her own. She also did not want to contact Lucius anyway. For her, the primary concern was the safety of her son who was all that was left to her. The Malfoy name was mud at the moment. It would be years, generations or maybe never before it would have some semblance of respect.

"What are you doing here?", she heard someone growl at her.

She realised that she had not heard the floo roar. A witch had stepped out of the fire and was standing before her with a wand pointed at Narcissa. The witch was young, somewhere about 23 years of age, shoulder length black hair, slightly upturned nose and dressed in the robes of an Auror. She knew she had never met this individual before this day. She could not understand why she was hostile to her however Narcissa was not one to be intimidated so easily. She was not a Black for nothing.

The young witch snapped at her again, "Will you speak or do I have to make you speak?"

Narcissa casually said, "The likes of you cannot make me speak. Perhaps you should learn some manners about how to talk to your elders."

The newcomer growled, "I do not need to show my manners to death eaters like you."

The taunt stung her but she kept her face impassive. She did not deign to reply. Before spells started flying, it was Remus Lupin who chose that moment to appear in the entrance chamber.

He asked the newcomer, "Dora, Why have you come here?"

The young witch turned to him, "What is she doing here? Have you taken it into your head to entertain death eaters? Does Harry know about it?"

Remus exclaimed, "Oh Merlin! Firstly, she is not a death eater. You can check her arm for yourself if you don't believe me. Second, she is here because she petitioned Harry for a boon of safety for herself and her son, Draco. Harry, as Lord Black granted it. She is bound by her word not to engage in this conflict or share any information about us with her husband."

The young witch eyed Narcissa wryly, "I would not touch her with a ten-foot pole, Moony."

Remus frowned, "Does your mother approve of your conduct towards her sister?"

Narcissa frowned, "My sister? I do not know this individual, nor do I have any sort of relationship with her."

Remus smirked, "Well, since Dora is not willing, let me make the introductions. Mrs. Malfoy, this is Nymphadora Tonks otherwise known as Tonks daughter of Andromeda Tonks nee Black and Theodore Tonks.". He turned to Nymphadora then, "I assume you already know your auntie."

Realisation dawned on Narcissa then and she turned to Nymphadora, "You are Andy's daughter? How is she?"

Nymphadora did not answer her question however and turned to Remus, "Remus, I wanted to know if you would agree to take me to dinner in a new Restaurant in Muggle London? I have the perfect place in mind."

Remus uncertainly looked towards Narcissa who said indifferently, "I will be fine here Mr. Lupin. I have already promised Lord Black that I would not betray his trust."

**Muggle London**

Tonks did not immediately go to the Restaurant. She dragged Moony along with her to her home first. She chose a silver gown with hints of amber to wear and a pair of high heels to go with it. Her wand was in the holster attached to her wrist hidden under her sleeve. She insisted that Remus change into something decent. He humoured her by wearing Gryffindor red coloured robes of Acromantula silk with a black shirt and brown trousers. He topped off the ensemble with dragon hide boots.

The Restaurant "Hestia's hearth" was a new one situated in the suburbs of London tending to only the very elite. It offered a wide variety of cuisine to its patrons. Even though it was absurdly costly, the place had a waiting list. One had to book his place about a week in advance.

The interior was well done with the architecture resembling a Greek building with the rooms being arranged around in open courtyard where five immensely big braziers were kept lit with greenish fire to keep things warm around them. The roof of the restaurant was made of what appeared to be overlapping tiles. The floor was made of polished basalt, covered with exquisite looking carpets. The rooms were decorated with silk tapestries depicting important events from Greek history, Egypt, Rome etc. There were paintings on the walls which showed famous landmarks around the world including the seven ancient wonders of the world. The furniture was as cosy as it could get with no two chairs or stools being exactly the same shape.

Lupin had been taking in the place since he entered. When he was certain of his observations he asked her, "This is not a muggle establishment, is it?"

She smirked, "No. As far as I know, it was established by some muggle-born who could not get a venue in Diagon Alley or any of the adjacent alleys. He only employs muggle- born here. The most interesting bit I have heard about this place is that they have never given a reservation to a death eater. I brought you here because it is more peaceful here than in Diagon Alley and I am not much of a fan of muggle establishments. Who knows, suddenly I might change my appearance and we would need an obliviation squad to deal with the consequences."

He chuckled, "There is that too."

By this time, a waiter had shown them to their table which was in one of the private parlours where they could eat in peace. The menu was vast. It contained lists of food items from almost every cuisine that they could imagine. There was Indian, Chinese, Italian, Greek, American and so many cuisines that they had no idea of.

They took around ten minutes to read the menu before they made up their mind to order something from the list. Before they were served with the main course, the waiter served them with appetizers.

While they nibbled on their appetizers, she asked him, "What have you thought about marriage?"

He arched an eyebrow, "Why are you suddenly so worried about marriage?"

She said apprehensively, "I am scared, Remus. As the war heats up, things will get more and more dangerous with time. I don't know if we will survive the war or perish. I, for one, don't want to find myself in the afterlife, regretting that I did not marry when I could have."

He understood and took her hands between his. He pressed them warmly, "I understand Dora but I have been scared for different reasons. I am a werewolf and I do not know if I can procreate. If we do have children, I fear what would happen if our children turned out to be werewolves?"

She said softly, "Remus, you think too much. Who is to say that we are getting children tomorrow? As far as I know, it takes 9 months. Besides I am sure Harry would find a cure soon enough for Lycanthropy."

He smiled, "I surely hope so."

Tonks did not talk about it more but her words had stirred something in Remus, a longing to marry this beautiful witch and to sire children. She was right that war was at the door and no one knew what would happen. Marriage was a topic he had not thought about in his life but it felt like a certainty in that moment. James was happiest when he was married after all. When Harry arrived, Remus had felt such joy for the boy who was his nephew. May be marriage was not that bad after all. However he needed to bounce this idea off Padfoot before giving more thought to it. Sirius was the one who knew him best and he would not do anything without telling him.

**Ministry of Magic**

A meeting was going on in the Ministry. Moody, Frank and Amelia were present with some of the senior Aurors. The topic was the Giant Attack and the death eater raids. The problem was that they could not keep their eyes on everyone and everywhere. It was natural that there would be some deaths since that was what war did. The aim of this meeting was to prevent fear and apprehension from growing in the wizarding population. If the morale of wizarding Britain was harmed at this moment, it might mean that more witches and wizards would join Voldemort's forces rather than die at their hands.

Frank addressed Moody, "Alastor, what have you got for me?"

Moody didn't have much in the way of useful information for him but he told what he knew, "the Giant was brought to the place by Walden Macnair. There were about 10 death eaters with him who later came to kill muggles and Aurors. Since the Aurors were seriously ill-prepared to deal with a giant, they fell before the Giant. The Death Eaters faced little resistance when they arrived. As is their modus, they apparated in threw killing curses around and were gone before additional back-up could arrive. In the raids in the wizarding districts and areas, the raids were led by Parkinson and about 10 death eaters. There too they adopted the same modus and were gone before back-up could arrive."

Frank turned to Rufus, "Rufus, what have you done about it?"

Rufus took some time to form an answer and then started speaking slowly and clearly, "I dispatched wizarding patrols as soon as I could but perhaps that was not enough. The problem that we have is that we did not come to know of the attacks until it was too late. Despite the increase in our numbers, we still do not yet have sufficient numbers to put a watch in every corner of Wizarding Britain. We will need help from many of our neighbours but so far we have got nothing."

Sirius who was sitting quietly asked him, "Rufus, can we not ask the ordinary wizards and witches to send a message calling for help to the ministry almost the moment troubles starts? I mean every wizarding home or shop has a floo. They can send a call for help almost instantly."

Rufus shook his head, "The problem is that even if we ask them to do it, not many of them would. I tried to ask some. They told me that they do not place their trust in us but the figure heads of the ministry such as our esteemed General here or the Chief Warlock or the chosen one. For instance if Harold Peverell were to ask them, they would do anything for him."

Frank immediately refused the idea, "That would not work, Rufus. Harry is in school. We cannot expect him to interfere every time an attack happens. If we were to place too much reliance on him then why do we have our esteemed Aurors here? He is a fighter beyond compare but if we keep turning to him every time then it would make us look bad."

Moody nodded with his decision, "I agree. We cannot ask too much of the lad. He is a fighter but it is the ministry's duty to care for the people. We should not burden him with our expectations too much."

Sirius didn't say anything. He had different ideas in his mind. He knew that Harry did not like the limelight but he was also amenable to do things if they were for others' benefit.

**Hogwarts**

The students were at breakfast when Hedwig came to Harry with a letter. He had sent her to Viktor Krum in Bulgaria a week ago with a letter. He had changed his earlier plans and now was supposed to be arriving in Wizarding Britain in January about a week from now. Harry had offered to make arrangements for him to stay. The letter read:

_"Harry Potter_

_I will be arriving to Wizarding Britain through the portkey you have sent for me. I accept your offer of hospitality. I must say I was positively surprised when I got the letter from the management of Puddlemere United to come and play for their team. _

_I have agreed to join them. They have offered to show me their stadium and introduce me to other members of the team before I start playing for them. With there being no club quidditch in Bulgaria, it would be easy for me to spend the rest of the year playing in Britain for them. _

_Viktor Krum"_

When he finished reading the letter, he noticed others were looking at him in anticipation. He did not answer them but tucked in his food.

Hermione asked him, "Who wrote to you?"

He said offhandedly, "Viktor did."

She asked, "Viktor who?"

Harry eyed her, "Hermione how many Viktors do we know? Of course it is Viktor Krum I am talking about."

Ron asked him, "What is he writing to you for?"

Harry smirked, "Because he is arriving in Wizarding Britain this weekend Ron. I have offered for him to stay in one of the houses that I own."

Ron asked indignantly, "What would you need that git for?"

Harry warily said, "I have told you already, Ron. He is one of the best seekers in the world. I want him to play for Puddlemere United. Also his family is very renowned in that part of Europe. He can get people for our side to fight in the upcoming battle. We need more numbers on our side. I don't understand one thing though. Why are you so down on him?"

Ron spluttered something incomprehensible and his ears turned red but Harry understood. He was apprehensive that Hermione would pay more attention to him than Ron. He was still not over his insecurity.

"Hi Harry", said a firstie dressed in Slytherin Silver and Green. Harry recognised Steven Ainsworth, "Hi Steven. What can I do for you?"

Steven thrust a piece of parchment into his hand, "This is for you."

Before Harry could ask him anything more, the boy was gone. Harry opened the piece of parchment. It was unnamed except for initials at the end which read DE. It read:

_"Lord Black_

_In disposal of the duties entrusted by you to us, we have been keeping an eye on Draco Malfoy and the children of Death Eaters. Recently Theodore Nott received a missive from his father asking him to kill Draco Malfoy. From what I found out, Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe are on this plan with him while I do not know about Gregory Goyle. Also, it has come to my knowledge that some student in this castle has been tasked with finding out your routine and people you interact with so some use can be made of the information._

_From what I know, an attempt on Malfoy's life will be made in a couple of nights. There was no other way for me to send this message to you promptly._

_DE"_

Harry read the parchment. He felt his anger rearing its head but he knew he could not act in haste. He would have to lay a trap and catch them in the act. It could mean harm to Malfoy but he would have to take the risk or he would not get them. A student working for Voldemort was also a worrying thought. Perhaps a meeting with Severus was in order.

"What is in the letter mate?", asked Ron.

Harry shook his head, "Just some family business. It is nothing to worry about at the moment. I will need help later though."

With parchment and quill, he started writing a letter for John Dawlish, the Auror who was posted at the Hogwarts outpost. When he was done writing it, he sent it with Hedwig telling her to take it to him promptly.

That day they had a transfiguration lesson. Professor McGonagall was having them revise Vanishing spells. They were at it for the third class in a row and were trying to learn vanishing more complex organisms now. She was determined to ensure that they would be able to do it with their eyes closed, if they needed to do so.

At the end of the class, she asked the lions to stay back. When they were alone, she started speaking, "This is your OWL year. Your exams are hardly 4 months away now. Starting tomorrow you will have your career consultations. The schedules will be posted on the notice board in your house today. Also I would caution you all to start preparing for the exams which are not very far now. I will be disappointed if any of you score anything less than an E in my subject. If you need some help, the doors of my office are open to you."

Similar notices were given to the students of the other houses. They would be busy for the next few days in career counselling.

That evening, brochures were distributed in the Common Rooms to the fifth years about the careers they could pursue based on their grades. Harry and some others had taken seats near the fire. They were poring over them.

Hermione who was looking through some of the brochures asked him, "Harry, what have you decided for yourself?"

Harry said offhandedly, "I don't know Hermione. None of these options strikes me as the perfect one for me."

She asked, "I thought that you wanted to be an Auror, didn't you? What happened to that dream?"

Harry asked her curiously, "Hermione can you really imagine me being an Auror? I mean sure I can fight but do you think I would enjoy it if I am to catch petty thieves and burglars or occasional killers? I cannot be a curse breaker because I have so many obligations to dispose of that I would hardly have time to be a curse breaker. I am already a part of the ministry in a greater capacity than I would be if I joined them after my NEWTs? I would however love to play Quidditch for some time before I would leave and live life in peace. May be some club would agree to take me on their team."

He asked Ron, "What about you mate? Didn't you want to join the Aurors?"

Ron shook his head, "I don't know Harry. I mean I wanted to join them but playing Quidditch for a professional team sounds more exciting. Besides it would allow me to remain at home as much as I want except for when I am travelling with the team. I think I'll keep trying until some team selects me to play for them."

Hermione said appreciatively, "That's nice, Ron. You must do what you want to do. If you don't feel like working in the ministry then you can do what you wish."

Harry turned to Neville finally, "What about you, mate? What have you planned for yourself? I assume that since Uncle Frank and god mother were Aurors that you would follow in their footsteps?"

Neville shook his head, "You're all mental. I don't want to be an Auror. I'll pursue my mastery in Herbology or Transfiguration before going into the teaching profession. I want to have a nice quiet life."

Harry finally asked Hermione, "What about you? What do you want to do after Hogwarts?"

She went into her rapid-fire mode, "I think I'll join the ministry. I'll work for the betterment of the magical creatures who don't know their rights. There are a lot of things that need to be done for them."

Harry smiled, "That's very ambitious of you, Hermione. I wish the best for you."

**The career counselling**

The next day, Harry walked into the defense class to find Hermione eyeing him strangely. He self consciously thought that he was looking funny or something but he could find nothing wrong with himself. He finally asked her, "Hermione, what's the problem?"

She asked him, "Did you by any chance forget that you have career counselling with Professor McGonagall today?"

Harry sheepishly grinned, "I guess I did. I will see you all later in the Common Room." Saying so, he ran all the way to McGonagall's office to find he was just about on time. She smiled when she saw him, "Harry! I guess you forgot you are scheduled for career counselling today?"

Harry nodded. "Sorry professor."

She waved him off, "Think nothing of it. Take a seat now and we'll get started."

When he sat, she consulted a few parchments before she started speaking, "So what have you thought about your future?"

Harry didn't know what to tell her. True he was inclined towards playing Quidditch but saying that to Professor McGonagall sounded silly. Still, she was waiting expectantly for him to answer, "I guess I haven't yet made up my mind about it, Professor. I mean last year I wanted to be an Auror but now that I think about it, I find that I am not really inclined towards it."

She nodded, "So what have you thought about as a career?"

He reluctantly asked her, "Can you suggest something to me, Professor?"

She said, "Okay. Let's list all the potential careers for you. You said you wanted to be an Auror until last year so let's start with that. They require at least 5 E's in your NEWTs out of which four shall be Defense, Transfigurations, Charms and Potions. You can take another as an elective. I see that you have been marked highly in defense in all your tests especially those set by competent teachers like Remus Lupin and Vikram Rana. Even the death eater who posed as Alastor last year marked you an O in his tests. Since you did not appear in the term end examinations, I have nothing to compare you with others. Filius has been giving you O throughout this year and I would be disappointed if you scored anything less than an O in your OWLs. Severus has been giving you extra credits in all of his tests this year simply because you can brew three variations of a potion at the same time. Bethsheda is very impressed with your improvement so far and says that you would scrape an O without trouble in your OWLs. You have been doing fairly well in Transfigurations and I expect you to get an extra credit in the subject. With these grades, you would have no problem getting accepted in Aurors. If you want to work for Gringotts, you need E in Charms, Transfigurations and Runes which you can easily score. I do not however think you would want to work for muggle liaisons though. For healers they need E in charms, Transfiguration and Potions which you can score without any trouble. They ask for 5 E's if you want to work for the ministry in general."

He nodded, "Professor, I don't want to do any of these things. I mean I could be an Auror but I cannot go about their daily routines and sit behind a desk, I have no interest in working for Gringotts and I do not want to join the ministry as an employee. I actually want to play Quidditch for some time after graduating. Then I would think about another vocation, perhaps as a teacher or something."

She gave him a brightening smile, "That's a good career choice, Harry. If you want to play professionally for a team, you need to be at your best for the Scouts who come to every game. I would try to get some of them to pay attention to your flying skills. I dare say that with your skills, they would be falling over themselves to sign you up."

"Thank you Professor. You are being too kind to lavish such praise on me", he said. He of course could not tell her that he was part owner of one such team which would be more than happy to recruit him. With that she dismissed him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ministry of Magic**

Greg Jugson had been a death eater in the last war and fought on Voldemort's side. He was not a member of the inner circle so he was not privy to much of what went on in it. He had been sent on many missions, mostly as a scout. He had cast an unforgivable or two at times but mercifully none had been the killing curse. He had seen so much death in the first war that he was disenchanted with it. He had joined Voldemort after being impressed with his grand plans of pureblood supremacy. He knew that death and bloodshed would happen but he had no idea that it would be to such an extent. Too many families had been wiped out of existence just because they did what they thought was the right thing to do. When Voldemort was vanquished, he had been relieved and went about living his life as if nothing had ever happened. He had prayed every day that Voldemort would not come back but he did.

Mercifully, there was recourse available to him to stay out of the war courtesy of Lord Black. He was a powerful wizard who had beaten the Dark Lord in a two hour long duel and yet emerged victorious. When the Dark Lord came out into the open, Jugson had gone into hiding. He presumed that he would have to hide for a long time but his heir had found a way out, a way by which he could attain some semblance of respect for his family name.

He knew where the floo entrances to the ministry were located. He had the letter of reference from Harold Peverell in his pocket which was his ticket to freedom. True, the ministry might cast him into prison or even execute him for his past crimes but he hoped to sit out the war in some safe house. In any event, he would not die in this war or aid in killing wizards to fulfill the dreams of a filthy half-blood who cared nothing for the lives of his followers.

As soon as he exited the floo, he crumpled to the floor as the wards stunned him. An Auror in the Atrium calmly bound him with chains then levitated him in a stretcher and took him to Alastor Moody.

When Jugson regained consciousness, he was in the accused chair before the War Tribunal. General Longbottom was addressing him, "Greg Jugson, you came to the ministry bearing a Letter of Reference from Lord Black. It specifically states that you willingly submit yourself to a veritaserum trial before the ministry can offer you any help. Do you agree?"

He readily agreed, "Yes, I agree to the proposition, General Longbottom."

Frank motioned for an Auror standing in the corner who administered three drops to him. After waiting for a few seconds to make sure that he was under the influence, Frank motioned for Gawain to proceed.

Gawain Robards asked him, "What is your name?"

He replied monotonously, "My name is Greg Jugson."

Gawain asked further, "Are you an animagus?"

He shook his head, "No, I am not an animagus."

Robards was convinced that the potion had taken effect. He asked the next question, "When did you join Voldemort?"

He shuddered a little before answering, "I joined him just a little after I graduated. A lot of people in my year were joining him. My father wanted me to make him proud. Not to mention, my house's liege lord the House of Black was fighting on his side so I had to join him."

Gawain asked, "What did you do in his service?"

Jugson answered, "I was one of his foot soldiers. My sole occupation was to follow orders. I was used mostly for scouting missions. A few times, I was sent into a fight."

Gawain asked, "Did you ever cast an unforgivable?"

Jugson answered, "I am ashamed to admit it now that I cast the cruciatus curse a few times and an imperio once in his service."

Gawain asked, "Have you killed anyone?"

Jugson answered, "I never killed anyone."

Gawain asked, "What do you know about his position at the moment?"

Jugson answered, "I have received news of him from some of his followers by owl post. I know for a fact that he is out of Wizarding Britain for now. He is not expected to return for at least two months. "

Gawain turned to Frank, "I have no more questions for him at the moment."

Frank announced his decision, "Greg Jugson, being a death eater is a crime punishable by life in Azkaban. Using any of the unforgivable curses carries the same sentence. Have you anything to say for yourself before I pronounce sentence?"

Jugson sat up straight and looked frank in the eye, "Minister, you may pronounce any sentence you see fit. Just so long as I never have to serve that maniac again, I am content."

Frank shared a look with Moody and Amelia. They nodded their agreement before Frank spoke again, "When you came to the ministry, you carried a letter from Lord Peverell. Although this tribunal is under no obligation to honour those terms, we have agreed to do so. For the duration of the current conflict, you will be in the care of the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries. You will give them your full cooperation. When the conflict is over, if you have honoured the terms of this agreement, your wand will be returned to you and you shall be released. If, on the other hand, you fail to cooperate or attempt escape, you shall be punished to the limit of the law. Are we agreed?"

He nodded, "I agree with the decision of this tribunal."

**Fourth floor**

The Order of the Snow Leopard was meeting for urgent business. That business being an impending attack on Draco Malfoy, who was involved and how to thwart it. Harry knew that Crabbe and Parkinson were in on the plan with Nott but they did not know about Goyle. Their problem was that they were not certain how many were in on the plan. Daphne had told him that those three were in it for sure. The problem was that if there were more, there was no way to know, unless Harry started reading everyone's minds but that was illegal, immoral and distasteful to Harry. If he started doing stuff like that, it was a very short and slippery slope to being no better than Tom Riddle himself. They would just have to find a better way to expose the conspirators.

Harry looked around the table. The smartest, bravest and most trustworthy were here, Hermione, Ronald, Neville, Susan, Hannah, Conrad Du Vant, and Daphne Greengrass were all here. Harry only had the barest details of the plot. He had to work with that.

Harry addressed them, Thank-you all for coming. There is a problem. I am counting on all of you to help me solve it. I assume that you have all heard about the coverage of the trial of Lucius Malfoy in The Daily Prophet? He publicly denounced the so called dark lord during his testimony. Voldemort (to their credit, his friends did not shudder) is not one to take such insults lying down. In retribution, he has, by whatever means, ordered the death of Draco Malfoy in retribution."

Harry took a moment to watch the reactions of his friends to this statement. Daphne's jaw clenched. Hermione looked horrified. Neville looked grim. Susan looked contemplative and Ron looked like he wanted to speak something but was trying to weigh its merits before he spoke.

Harry continued, "I don't have all the details. What I do know is that Nott is in charge. Crabbe and Parkinson are in on it. I don't know about Goyle. There are likely others."

Ron chimed in, "What? All of his best mates want him dead? Why do we even care about that?"

Harry looked sadly at Ron, "Ron, I know how it feels to have my best mates turn on me." Ron's ears turned red at the memory of how he treated Harry just last year when Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire. Harry continued, "It's true that he's been nothing but a stupid, slimy git to all of us for years, but…", Harry began to tick points off on his fingers, "He's been behaving himself since the duel. Right now, he has no friends that he can count on. And, whatever he's done, he's just a student, he's a Black and his mother has formally asked me to look out for him. It's bad enough that Voldemort has killed off our parents and loved ones. They were adults, capable of defending themselves. Now, he's using other students to reach right into our school and murder one of his own. I will not stand by and let it happen. Will you help me?"

Hermione spoke up next, "Is it true, Harry? Would Voldemort really use students to kill other students?"

"Hermione, there is nothing resembling morality in his twisted mind. He doesn't care about what is right or wrong. For him all that matters is power. That is what he wants above everything. And once he sets his mind on doing something, he will not be dissuaded. Lucius said that he regrets having served the dark lord. In payment for that insult, he will torture the man until he begs for death. Killing Draco is just part of that. Nott's father was broken out of the prison when it was raided. As far as I know, he has taken Lucius's place in the inner circle and Malfoy is out. Riddle has given the responsibility to him to see to it that Lucius is properly punished for his disloyalty. Besides Riddle only wants his wishes to be fulfilled and he does not care what means he has to resort to achieve his desire." Harry nodded to Ron, "I know we are not friends nor would he do anything for us but he is still a part of one of my houses. Due to the responsibility given to me by Mother Magic to take care of everyone who is a part of my House, I am bound to protect him. The question is will you all help me or do I have to make other arrangements?"

Hermione said, "There is no question that we will help you, Harry."

He said, "Right. So here is the plan. We need some information. First, I need a schedule of his patrol tonight. Second, I want some people to keep an eye on him every time he steps out of his dorm. I have some other people watching him when he is in his dorm. I do not want him away from our watch for a second. I do not know where they are planning to attack him or how. I need him to be watched and his activities monitored. Above all, I want a few of the serpents to keep an eye on Nott and Parkinson. They will be taking the lead in this."

He turned to Daphne, "Daphne, she is in your dorm meaning that you can always keep an eye on her movements without attracting any attention to yourself." Daphne grinned. Harry continued, "Just keep track of her and nothing more. However if it appears that she is doing something that she should not then feel free to stun her and bind her. The same goes for anyone who appears to be in cahoots with her."

Daphne nodded, "I've got it covered, Harry."

He turned to Ron, "Arrange to have your patrolling schedule coincide with his. Aim for the particular section of the castle where he will be patrolling so you would have a reason to keep an eye on him without him being the wiser."

He turned to Conrad, "You will follow the others who aim to harm him. Just tail them staying in the shadows. If they appear to be doing something wrong, feel free to stun them and bind them."

Conrad nodded, "Alright Harry. I will do it."

With that he dismissed the meeting. All they could do now was to wait for the evening when they would try to attack Malfoy. If they caught them in the act, they would get rid of those 3 at once and it would be safer in the school. The letter he had sent to Dawlish was to keep him on alert as a backup. He was to arrive as soon as he could after he saw the snow leopard patronus arrive. While Dawlish would not know that Harry could use the patronus to send a message but its arrival would be the signal for him to move in.

**Ministry of Magic**

Mafalda Hopkirk was going towards the Ministry when another of the employees of the Ministry joined her, "Good morning, Mafalda. Busy day, isn't it?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Not really. With all the students being at Hogwarts, there are very few days when my office sees any action."

The other nodded, "Hmmm, I never really thought of that. I suppose that you have a list of students at your office that you use to find if an underage wizard has used magic?"

She replied, "I do have a list in my office but it is of no use if an underage wizard cast magic in a wizarding home, as you well know. Why are you interested in the list though?"

The other man had his wand out in a second and he intoned, "Imperio." It took a scant few seconds before she felt quite relaxed and anything the other person said to her seemed like the best idea in all the world.

Later that evening, she furnished a list of addresses of Muggle Born students to Mulciber who had imperioused her.

**Cottage on the hill**

"Stand down, Moony", said Sirius, "You're too brutal. Sometimes I wonder how it would have changed things if you were an Auror." He and Moony had been practicing duelling for the last two hours. It was invigorating. In spite of the cool day, they were both sheened with sweat. Remus had insisted that he needed some practice so they had practiced. Not only were they evenly matched, but they also knew each other's moves. Neither one could gain the upper hand on the other. If they kept it up long enough, it would finally come down to who dropped from exhaustion first.

Remus lowered his wand, "It was good practice, Padfoot. I must say you are sharp as ever."

Sirius waved him off, "Thank you for the praise but maybe we can now come to the real reason for this visit? I presume you have something on your mind and you want to talk."

Remus smiled, "Nothing escapes you, does it? I indeed had something to talk about."

Sirius chuckled, "If it's going to take some time then let's sit with glasses of mead in our hands and talk about it."

With that he summoned Winky who brought a bottle and glasses which she laid on the table and disappeared. Sirius poured mead for both of them and they started drinking. Nobody spoke for about 5 minutes. Remus was trying to figure out how to put his thoughts into words while Sirius waited.

Remus started speaking, "Do you remember James's wedding?"

Sirius smiled, "Of course I do. It was a memorable experience. I never rejoiced more than I did that day."

Remus agreed, "It was indeed one of the happiest days. James fretted over his robes, conscious of his appearance and praying that nothing would go wrong."

Sirius laughed a good bit, "Yeah! He was so nervous. But it turned out to be for the better. I have never seen two people so much in love as him and Lily."

Remus added, "Yeah. And I remember you looking at Marlene with such emotion that I was hopeful of standing in as your best man at your wedding."

Sirius said a bit sourly, "Yeah! If the rat had not squealed on us, I would have married her.". He however was suspicious as to why Remus would talk about it now and asked him, "Moony, is there a reason that you are talking about marriage?"

Remus chuckled, "Oh yes! There is a reason."

Sirius glared at him, "Then spill it."

Remus pacified him, "recently Dora asked me if I was contemplating marriage. I didn't give her a clear answer. The thing is that I do want to marry her, preferably sooner than later. I wanted to bounce this idea off you first considering that you are the brother I never had."

Sirius looked at him incredulously, "I'm surprised Moony. I thought that I'd have to coerce you into it but you're ready to do this. I have been contemplating the same. All that's left for me to do is to ask Emmeline. She's been hinting that she wants me to propose to her as soon as possible."

"May be then you should do it soon, Padfoot. There is a lot which goes into preparing for a marriage and we have made zero preparations yet. Also I am apprehensive about Harry."

"What about him?", asked Sirius with a raised eyebrow.

Remus smirked, "He's set upon organising a grand wedding. And he said that if I agreed to this plan of his, he would convince you to marry at the same time. He seemed very determined."

Sirius laughed, "Maybe he's gone too far but I don't think that he is wrong. I feel that we must think about marriage now. I have been having this feeling for some time now but I would like to propose to her in a grand style. It feels just right that you should be the best man. There is none who deserves this honour more than you. Likewise I would stand in for you like I did for James. You can't take that away from me."

Remus agreed, "I agree but don't take too long. If you need to bounce this idea off someone before you agree, I'm amenable to that."

**Unknown Castle**

Bellatrix, as it turned out, had been the least affected by the Dementors. She only felt something akin to joy when she was committing mayhem in the name of The Dark Lord. This twisted sadism was something the dementors could not feed upon. When they tried, reliving all those memories of torturing, maiming, killing and destroying in her master's name just gave her more strength. In other words, she had been barely affected by the Dementors.

When Voldemort left for his tour, he gave her the duty to train his faithful. She would have to teach them to be ruthless in dealing with their foes and not to be afraid of anything. Most of them were pathetic in their spell casting. They couldn't use it for offensive magic. Many of them could not cast a decent shield charm either. It was an uphill task to train them.

"The Dark Lord has left me in charge of ensuring that you all become worthy of serving him. He has given me free rein to do what I would and make sure that you can pay for the mark on your arm. This mark does not come easily to us but has to be earned by proving ourselves. When we take this mark, we commit ourselves to serve the Dark Lord and help him fulfil the dreams he has for our world. We want a world free of tainted blood and family trees pruned of the undeserving ones. Our magic has been tainted by the mud-bloods who stole from us. We will eradicate them and ensure pure-blood supremacy. Those who prove themselves to him will be mightily rewarded by him", she was saying to the death eaters assembled before her.

She had them assembled to teach them. Voldemort had given her this responsibility and she was not going to fail her master. She was a bit miffed when she learned that the Dark Lord had allowed Severus back into the order without punishing him. Severus had once again proved that he was crafty enough to manipulate someone into believing him. She was determined to ensure that her lord would pay attention to her more than he did to Severus. She would prove that she was the most loyal of his followers.

She spoke further, "We have been given huge blows by the Aurors and I intend to repay them. The problem is that most of you are undertrained and incompetent when compared to them. You all will do as I ask or you will suffer my displeasure. Those who fail to follow my orders will pay with their lives. Is that clear?"

Without waiting for an answer, she motioned for a few of her death eaters to come forward, "Rudolphus, Rabbastan and Dolohov will be teaching you. I will keep an eye on your progress. If I find that you are lacking in your effort or progress, you will suffer my displeasure. Do not fail me."

With that, the chosen trio started teaching the death eaters. They had planned to teach them to aim and cast most of the dark spells. Most of them knew only the Killing Curse or a few more curses but they would be taught a few more.

Bellatrix had a few problems of her own. She knew a variety of curses but most of it had been family magic. She had been Black by birth and could wield the magic easily enough. She had studied the Grimoire and perfected herself in some of the spells which were part of the family magic. These spells had earned her the reputation she had but lately she was having trouble with those spells. She remembered the effect of them, the incantation but she could not cast the spells. Her magic just did not let her use those spells. She had wondered why it was so. Also when she had married Rudolphus, she had got a little of the Lestrange family magic but lately she could not use that either. The bond which she had always sensed between her and Rudolphus also did not buzz like it used to. This had taken away from her all of her special spells and most of her strength in duelling. She however had hidden this fact from others because she could not openly advertise it and put herself in jeopardy because if others stopped fearing her, it would not bode well for her.

She watched the death eaters practicing. Most of them were novices. They could not even stun someone so how could she expect them to kill? True casting the killing curse was not hard but it requires extreme and absolute hatred which had to be kindled in their heart. For now, they were being taught bombarda but the trio were experiencing problems. The followers were not able to use the spell properly yet. It would take some time before they would be able to do it.

After the two hour session was finished, she convened a meeting of the inner circle. Everyone was present in the meeting and she started speaking, "The Dark Lord has left me with a mission to finish while he is away."

Rookwood asked, "What was the mission?"

"Do you believe that the mud-bloods are descended from wizarding families?", she asked of him.

There were noises of protest against this statement but she had fixed her gaze on Rookwood because he had once worked in the Department of Mysteries so, he was expected to know if the report published the other day was genuine or not.

He did not break eye-contact with her but said impassively, "The report is false. The mud-bloods have stolen our magic." He personally believed this theory and had actively propagated to suppress the reports which suggested that Muggle Born were descended of Wizarding families.

"The Dark Lord has asked me to kill the mud-bloods. I had commissioned Mulciber with accessing the list of mud-bloods at Hogwarts and he has brought the list today. I want to hear names you think must be attacked first."

She turned to Lucius, "What do you think? Who should be targeted first?"

Lucius drawled, "The same mudblood who is always sticking up beside Harry Potter. Hermione Granger and there are a few more who Draco reported to be close to him. The Creeveys for instance. In fact I have heard that the Weasley girl is seeing one of those boys"

There were noises of scorn around the room. She said sternly, "Silence. The Weasleys have always been blood-traitors. We cannot expect anything better of them than this but we will not let this continue. We will kill the boy and his entire family."

Dolohov was ecstatic, "I want to go. It has been years since I hunted muggles. I would love the opportunity."

She shook her head, "No. Lucius has to prove his loyalty to the dark lord again. He will go to the Grangers with two Death Eaters and Rookwood will go to the Creeveys with Mulciber junior and three werewolves. I do not want any of them alive after this evening."

She then continued further, "The Dark Lord also asked me to kill the General and other officials in the ministry destroying their morale. I want teams formed and the task to be carried out as soon as possible."

**Hogwarts**

That evening Harry received a letter from a Hogwarts house elf. It was a letter from DE which read:

_"Lord Black,_

_This letter is in relation to the letter previously sent to you regarding the attempt being made on life of Malfoy. Nott has finished making the preparations. They will make the attempt tonight. I felt obliged to convey this fact to you. _

_From what I have been able to glean, they will be attempting it around Curfew time so there would be no witnesses and somewhere around the sixth floor. Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle are definitely in it along with Montague. There may be others. I have no knowledge about them. _

_DE"_

This brought some much needed excitement for him. He would have to keep his spells to non lethal but he would definitely get to stretch his legs a little. He wanted others because he was not sure who else was in on it and he could not be in two places at once.

After dinner had ended and curfew was yet to start, he sent summons to the members of his order to meet him behind the mirror on the fourth floor. He had sent summons for Ernie, Hannah, Susan, Daphne, Conrad, Hermione, Ron, Fay Dunbar and Neville. He had invited Fay because he wanted to see just how good she was. She was quick with a wand but what was the extent of her talents?

When they were all seated, he started addressing them, "So as Hermione has discovered, Malfoy is on prefect patrol from 5th to 6th floor from 10:00 to midnight. An attempt will be made on his life tonight. The only Prefects about 6th and 7th floor will be the Gryffindor Prefects. They will be keeping an eye on everything around them. We do not know if the attempt will be made in the East Wing or the West but we have to keep an eye on him all the time he is on prefect duty. If they are trying to sneak up on him, take them down but make sure that they are in such a position that there will be no doubt that they were about to hurt him. Any questions?"

Fay asked, "What are our roles?"

He smirked, "Glad you asked. Conrad will tail him from the dungeons while being under a disillusionment charm. Daphne will keep an eye on people who are leaving the common room after Malfoy. She will be sending a list of people on the holster and we will know who is involved in it. Conrad will tail them at a distance and will be augmented at the Badger's hole with Sue. Hannah and Ernie, who have duty to patrol the 3rd floor and the 4th, will keep an eye on Malfoy and any others who tail him. When the time is opportune, they will follow them to the sixth floor and on my signal, take out whomever they find."

Fay asked him, "Where will I be?"

Harry smirked, "You will be with me. We will keep a watch on every one who joins the party. When it is time, I expect you to take the lead."

She grinned, "I would like that."

Before he dismissed them, he warned them, "Be warned. We will have to keep ourselves out of trouble with other Prefects and teachers because if caught, we will be put in detention."

* * *

Draco Malfoy still could not believe how things had changed. Barely a month ago his father was sitting at the right hand of the Dark Lord. He was one of his confidantes. Within a month, Draco was at the mercy of his nemesis. Ever since Harry Potter had come into his life, he had caused only trouble for Draco. Now he held absolute authority over him. There was no one he could turn to. His mother herself was living in some place at Potter's mercy and he was pretty sure that Potter kept an eye on everything he did. He had realized that his so-called friends would turn against him when he returned after the winter vacation because his father had fallen from grace. The way Pansy had sneered at him and Nott had smirked evilly it had sent a clear message to him. Even Crabbe and Goyle had left his side for Nott.

He did what his mother had told him to, keep his head down and spend the year quietly. If he was able to make it through this year unscathed, she might find someplace else for him to finish his study or she may engage some private tutors for him and he could appear for NEWTs at the Ministry. He had been doing that. He even walked away from situations where he previously would have rushed in. Not having the kind of power he had earlier had its drawbacks. It all came down to Harry Potter. However he was not sure if he wanted Potter to be killed by the Dark Lord or for Potter to kill the Dark Lord. If he killed the Dark Lord, Draco may be able to have a peaceful life. The only drawback of this situation was that his father would likely spend the rest of his life in prison. If the Dark Lord succeeded in killing Potter, it would mean total annihilation of wizarding Britain and the house of Malfoy. He would do what his family was best at doing- looking after its own interests.

There were a few questions he had about Potter but he could not ask him. He wanted to know how Potter had been able to duel the Dark Lord for two hours and escape unhurt. True that he had got an idea of Potter's powers when he duelled with him but that would not have been sufficient before the Dark Lord. He must have been much more powerful than he let on.

He had also noticed how others kept an eye on his movements. Students who followed Potter and those who followed the Dark lord had been dogging his steps. He smelled something fishy. There was something afoot which stank. Draco wanted to know what it was. He was already in great danger in the dungeons. Every moment he spent there was spent in fear that someone would stab him in the back or slit his throat in his sleep.

This evening when he left the Common Room to start his patrol duties, he noticed that Warrington was following him with his eyes. He left the common room and at the first turn, he hid behind the wall to see if someone was pursuing him. But there was nobody there. Perhaps he was worrying over nothing. He was however a Slytherin and a Malfoy. He knew how to look after himself. He proceeded cautiously toward the fifth and sixth floors where he had patrol duty tonight. Although outwardly calm, he stepped lightly and listened carefully for any stray sounds in his wake. To his woe, several of the corridors were unlit. He kept his wand tip lit so no one could surprise him.

As soon as Draco had left the common room, Warrington, Nott and Crabbe had walked out to follow him. Daphne had signalled Conrad to follow them and kept an eye on Pansy. The trio however had to hide for a few moments when they cautioned themselves that Malfoy might be hiding because they had seen him being suspicious during the evening. When Malfoy walked ahead, they followed him soundlessly, walking from shadow to shadow so he could not see them, their wands ready to take him down if he suspected anything. Conrad had followed them out of the Common Room as closely as he dared. Since they all had to take the same way up to the ground floor, he had no problem following them. Unlike them, he knew the disillusionment charm and applied it to himself. With their being dim light, he was able to evade them. As agreed, Susan Bones was there outside of the fake Barrels. She joined him and they followed the three silently.

Harry had given the map to Susan to keep an eye on everyone in the castle. He had asked Fay to keep an eye on everyone who walked up the Grand Staircase. She was to wait until Conrad and Susan had passed so if someone else was tailing them, she would be able to get the drop on them. The most difficult thing was to hide after curfew. Since the war wards had been activated, most of the teachers were assigned patrol duties. That night, Snape, Flitwick, Septima Vector and Vikram were on duty with Dumbledore being in his office. Fay hid inside a suit of armour which was so positioned that she could keep an eye on the Grand Staircase without anyone being the wiser. Ernie and Hannah were to stay put until she sent a message to them on their holsters. When Fay saw three more students following Susan and Conrad, she exited the suit of armour and followed them. She would have to get these three down before they tried to harm others.

Neville was on the seventh floor waiting for the signal. He was to descend only if they were outnumbered. Otherwise, Harry wanted him to stay put.

Daphne sent Harry a message after Conrad had left. It simply read, "Pansy, Goyle and Selwyn Jr. have just left the common room. I think they intend to finish the work if Nott, Crabbe and Warrington fail to do so."

Harry read the message and did not think twice about it. He had made his arrangements and he would get to see if they bore fruit. He had decided that he would not be firing a single spell unless there was no other way. He wanted to see how good the others were.

He sent a patronus to Dawlish who had arrived promptly. The Auror asked him a bit stiffly, "Lord Peverell, what dangers were you alluding to when you wrote the letter to me? And should you not be in your Common Room since it is past curfew?"

Harry eyed him curiously, "Did not Master Auror Alastor Moody tell you to co-operate with me rather than to question me? Besides I have a very good reason for being out and about. I want you to escort me to the sixth floor where something interesting is about to happen."

Before they started however, Harry had cast the disillusionment charm upon himself and asked the Auror to do the same. When the Auror raised an eye-brow, Harry told him that it was necessary. Slowly they walked to the sixth floor while Harry kept his ears strained for any sound of spell fire. When he was near the sixth floor, he subtly activated the repelling ward which would keep the teachers away from that floor.

Draco was on the sixth floor when he confirmed that someone had been tailing him from the Dungeons. He turned around and said loudly, "Come out. I know you have been following me. Show me your cowardly faces."

He was surprised to see Crabbe though he was not so surprised to see Nott and Warrington. He drawled, "So why are you following me? Has your master asked you to keep watch on me?"

Nott smirked, "Oh no. He wants to punish your father for losing his faith. The Dark Lord has commissioned me with the duty to kill you."

Draco was scared and there was no one around who could help him. He was trapped here. He was outnumbered as well. He tried to bluff his way out and asked them, "Pray tell how you are going to kill me? The war wards will kill you if you try using the killing curse and I am admittedly better at duelling than any of you."

Warrington who had his wand out by now said, "Swaggering git! Let's test that."

Before he cast, his wand sailed through the air to an outstretched hand and a stunner felled him like a sack of potatoes. Malfoy turned around to find Susan Bones with a wand in each hand and Conrad Du Vant with their wands levelled at Nott and Crabbe. The two would be assassins were fool enough to start sending bone breakers and bombardas at the two of them. Malfoy, always good at looking out for number one, drove for cover while the exchange was happening.

Ron and Hermione had arrived in time to stop the three of them but remained hidden when they saw that the situation was under control. Not and Crabbe would not be able to face them for long. True to their predictions, Crabbe had soon slumped to the floor. Nott was holding his own against Susan who was not using any lethal spells. He sent a bombarda at her which she shielded. Before he could cast another, she sent a stunner at him. When he raised a shield, she started peppering him with shield breakers. After losing two or three shields in a row, he dodged the next one. She was casting at speed substantially better than his. By the time he was able to dodge, Susan had sent a spell chain at him. He raised another shield but the first spell in the chain was a shield breaker. It destroyed his shield. The second spell was a stunner which knocked him out, followed by a incarcerous which bound him in ropes.

Dawlish and Harry had seen the duel. When Dawlish wanted to interfere, Harry told him in whispers that they had it under control. He had trained with these students. He would know if they were in any trouble before they did. He asked him to keep watching. Harry would tell him to interfere if there was a reason to do so.

Pansy, Selwyn Jr. and Goyle arrived at almost that time and forced the others to drop their wands. Pansy sneered, "Well well! I was only hoping to get Malfoy but we are getting a bonus. I think I will kill Bones first and then this traitor Du Vant before we take care of Malfoy. The Dark lord will reward me handsomely."

Harry had to suppress a chuckle. These idiots had no clue that they were outnumbered two to one. According to plan, Fay arrived by that time behind them. She understood what to do. Without wasting a moment, she cast a wide-area stunner. She got Pansy and Selwyn down with the first shot. Crabbe looked bewildered. He turned about to face the new threat only to eat a knuckle sandwich. With the odds in his favour, Malfoy had found his courage and come out of cover to punch Crabbe in the face. Who knew that a hulking brute like that would have a glass jaw?

With that Harry dispelled his disillusionment charm and turned to Dawlish, "Well, there you are. Six of them, all determined to commit murder for their Dark Lord. Since they are under-aged, we can't put them in front of the War Tribunal but I suppose that if we bundle them up and present them to the Headmaster, we can at least have them expelled. That will make this school a safer place for everyone. Also remember that none of us were here but you found and subdued them."

Harry turned to Malfoy, "I don't expect any gratitude from you Malfoy. I do, however, require you to keep others' involvement a secret. If I find you have blabbed a word about them, I will make you pay. This may not be the last attempt on your life. You will want us watching your back."

Malfoy nodded and Harry took down the ward he had erected before he made his exit. The Auror in the meanwhile had pulled his badge to send for back-up while Harry, Fay, Susan and Conrad ran upstairs. Fay went to the Gryffindor tower with Harry. Susan and Conrad went to the Room of Requirement, which, according to their need, provided them with a secret passage to their common rooms.

The next morning, Dumbledore addressed them at breakfast, "It is with a heavy heart that I have to inform you all that last night, some of the students belonging to the House of Slytherin were expelled from this school. They were found to be involved in an attack on one of their fellow students at the orders of Voldemort. I had hoped that maybe the younger generation would be above the prejudice brewed by their fathers but alas! My hopes have been for naught."

This caused a murmur to break out among the students. Three students from fifth year were gone meaning the really low population had dwindled even further. Many students had a good guess that perhaps Malfoy was the one who had been targeted. The children of Death Eaters however were thinking about who could have been the informant who told on them. True that most of them were not planning to kill anyone yet but it was a worrying thought that someone among them may have been telling on them. They had stayed clear of children of neutral families yet someone from amongst them had told. Perhaps they would need to rethink their strategies.

* * *

**Potion Master's Office**

Severus was grading the assignments when there was a knock on his office door. He grunted, "Enter."

Harry entered the room looking around his office and asked him, "Professor, do you have some time?"

He motioned for him to sit, "Take a seat Harry." When he was seated, he asked further, "What brought you here?"

Harry asked him straight away, "Professor, how is it that you did not know about Nott's plot to attack Malfoy?"

Severus took time to answer, "Harry, you have discovered and thwarted a plot against the life of my godson. For that I am grateful. As to your question, since the Dark Lord has left Wizarding Britain, Bellatrix is in-charge of things. She does not see fit to apprise me of all that is going on in their order. She views me as an opponent who is vying for attention from the Dark Lord which she thinks she is entitled to. She likely gave the order for them to do it. They did. There is however another piece of information which I came to know and I wanted to convey to you."

Harry asked him, "Please do go on then. I am listening."

"I have heard whispers of planned attacks on the muggle-born. I told Dumbledore about it. He is boosting security but I thought you should know about it. Colin Creevey and Hermione Granger are on the top of the list."

Harry shook his head. The Creeveys were always in the company of other Gryffindors. They would be safe enough. But Hermione had to take prefect patrols. That would expose her to some risk. He might have to discover and thwart another plot.

Later he talked with Sirius who told him that Dumbledore had given this information to the Ministry. The Ministry was organising security for the families of the muggle-born.

**Hampstead**

With a loud crack, three death eaters appeared out of thin air near the house of Mr. and Mrs. Granger. They had been looking around the area during the day and they had satisfied themselves that muggle law enforcement would take time to arrive at the scene therefore they had time to do what they had to. Lucius was leading the three of them. They decided to apparate in and kill them before they got any wiser. They apparated keeping in mind the backdoor of the house and the next moment, they found themselves at the bottom of a pond. They swam out. After drying themselves off, they again proceeded toward the house. At a safe distance, Lucius began to cast detection spells to determine the nature of the wards around the house. It was a ward which would not allow any magical to enter the house except for those to whom it was tied. There was only one way through it. He would have to bring it down by force and then proceed to kill the muggles.

Daniel Granger had just turned in for the night with his wife when they thought they could hear some sort of commotion outside. Since he knew of the wizarding world and that the wizards otherwise known as Death Eaters would try to harm them he had been very caution. He peeked out of the window facing outside. He saw three men in robes with their faces covered by masks. One of them had his wand out. He was casting spells in the air. They were making the small explosions which had attracted his attention.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he picked up the phone and dialled 62442 (magic) which had been given to him. A voice answered, "Ministry of Magic, help desk for families of muggle born."

The help desk had been set up in a building across from the Ministry of Magic in London. It was so that the ministry would be able to help in case there was an attack on families of muggle-born by death eaters. The idea had come from Arthur who was fascinated with the muggle Fellytone. Frank had given the duty to him to see that it was installed and was working. A staff of three witches and wizards had been put in three shifts of 8 hours each around the phone. They were to immediately send a message to the Ministry who would dispatch Aurors to deal with the situation.

Daniel Granger spoke in the phone, "My name is Daniel Granger. I am speaking from Hampstead. My daughter studies at Hogwarts. There are three wizards outside my home casting spells around in thin air, making small explosions. I need help."

The dispatcher immediately sent the message to the Ministry from where Rufus sent a patrol of five wizards to the location. By the time they arrived, Lucius had been able to break down the wards. The Auror in the lead roared, "Halt and drop your wands."

Malfoy turned abruptly and roared, "Avada Kedavra."

One of the Aurors fell dead on the spot. The other Aurors started sending bombarda, bone breakers and bone crushers at the death eaters. Two of the death eaters were no match for the Aurors. They succumbed instantly. The leader of the Aurors had engaged Malfoy in a duel. Lucius was no match for Sirius Black but he was a fair hand at duelling. He kept his opponent engaged one on one until other Aurors decided to join in. Being outnumbered, Lucius conjured a cloud of dark smoke from his wand then turned on his heels to disappear in thin air.

At that moment, a group of four more Aurors arrived at the scene with Sirius Black in the lead. They started asking questions of the group which had arrived first. After they were sure that there were no more death eaters around, Sirius checked on the death eaters. One of them had been hit with a bombarda to his chest. It had ripped his chest open killing him. The other had taken a bone breaker to his skull. It had killed him instantly too.

Sirius asked the leader, "How many were there?"

The wizard answered, "There were three of them. Lucius Malfoy was their leader. It was his killing curse that killed Simkins. He is the only one who escaped."

Sirius nodded, "Return to the ministry and take SImkin's body with you. He will be buried with honour. I have one more thing left to do."

When the others were away, Sirius rang the door bell and it was promptly opened by Daniel. Sirius said, "Good evening, Mr. Granger. My name is Sirius Black. I trust Hermione has mentioned me before."

Daniel replied, "Yes she did. How can I help you?"

"Mr. Granger, as you might have realized, you will be in danger if you stay here. Dumbledore has asked me to shift you both to one of our safe houses for the time being. I assure you that you will be safe from harm there. You will be able to return after the war is over. Will you accept our protection?"

Daniel Granger knew there was no way around it. If something were to happen to him and his wife, Hermione would be distraught and it could prove dangerous to her. They would have to take the offer of sanctuary. He turned to Sirius, "Mr. Black, we accept your offer of sanctuary."

They were shifted to a safe house in Plymouth that same night by some order members who had been sent by Dumbledore since Sirius had to go somewhere else to fend off another attack. The order member told them that they could go about their ordinary routines. The Order would take care of them until the war was over. Daniel could go and put their affairs in order when he had time.

About an hour after the attack on the Grangers', five wizards appeared out of thin air outside of the Creevey farm. The Creevey's were not very wealthy nor did they have much in the way of money. They lived in a small two storied building outside the western suburbs of London. Apart from Colin and Dennis they had about 6 family members living at their home. The small parcel of land around the house belonged to them. They used it for a small dairy farm, inhabited by a few milk cows and a couple dozen laying hens. When the Death Eaters appeared, one of the bovines gave a cry of fright. It alerted the members of the house. When Mr. Creevey peeped out of the window, he saw one of them attacking his animal with a spell. He of course knew what a wand was and how it worked. He remembered the warnings he had been given.

Mr. Creevey had no phone at his home. As such, he could not call for help that way. He remembered the mirror which had been given to him by the wizard who brought his sons back after the New Year ball they had gone to. He pulled out the mirror and spoke quietly but clearly into it, "Sirius Black."

Sirius's face appeared in the mirror. He asked, "Mr. Creevey, what is the matter?"

He said hastily, "Five wizards are attacking my house. I need help."

In this life, Mr. Creevey was a dairy farmer. He kept a .22 calibre rifle to keep the foxes out of the hen-house. Not so long ago, he had been a soldier in the far-East. The Creeveys were small people and that made him ideal as a tunnel rat. These men were sent into enemy passageways with enough fire power to take out an entire regiment and only the very best ever came back. Mr. Creevey was one of those who came back. The old .22 was a single-shot, bolt action rifle, but he could pick the eye out of a fox at 200 paces in the dark with it. He would give a good account of himself before those wizards got anywhere near the house.

Sirius immediately grabbed Emmeline who was sitting with him for dinner and they appeared in front of the Creevey residence. One of the death eaters already lay dead about 50 paces from the front door. The other four had taken cover. They were taking turns, popping up and firing spells at the farmhouse. The old frame structure was already burning and parts of it had been destroyed.

Hastily, he started sending every spell he could think of while Emmeline sent messages to everyone she could remember.

As Sirius launched into his attack, there was a crack heard from the farmhouse and another death eater fell dead, a small, red circle right between his eyes.

With only three death eaters remaining, Sirius and Emmeline took them on in duels. Sirius took on two while Emmeline took on the other. Whatever was coming from the farmhouse was instantly deadly, but it seemed to be very limited in its rate of fire.

They kept dodging more than they cast while the death eaters were focused on them now. It had been a while when it happened. Emmeline dodged a violet coloured curse only to be knocked senseless by a grey coloured curse and she was not moving.

Blood rushed into Sirius's ears and recklessly he started sending some of his choicest dark curses at the death eaters in a solid stream. The death eaters had not seen these spells before and they could not stand up to it. One of them fell with a spear through his throat. Another was sliced in two with a ribbon.

Before the last one standing could decide what to do, there were a series of popping noises as the order members started to arrive. There was Remus with Nymphadora, Sturgis Podmore, Bill Weasley and Charlie Weasley.

Remus noticed the inert body of Emmeline lying on the ground and roared, "Don't let one of them escape alive today."

The last death eater could read the writing on the wall. As he began to twirl on the spot to make his escape, he was gunned down by half a dozen stunners. He fell to the ground, wrapped in enough rope to rig a tall ship.

Sirius had fallen to his knees, cradling Emmeline and crying, "No! You can't go! Not you too! I can't take another loss."

Miraculously, Emmeline stirred and croaked, "Can't breathe." She looked pale as death. It looked like she was hardly holding herself together.

Remus was shaking him, "Padfoot, she is alive but you need to take her to St. Mungo's now. Take her out of here. We'll join you shortly."

Nodding, Sirius stood and placed her in a stasis charm. Then he secured her to a stretcher and portkeyed away to St. Mungo's. The order members set about the work of extinguishing the fires and repairing what they could. With the only living prisoner secured, Tonks called for help with clean-up and transport.

Seeing that the fight was over, Mr. Creevey emerged from the house, rifle in hand. He addressed Remus, "Looks like we got 'em all."

Tonks approached him, "We're sorry we couldn't get here any sooner, Mr. Creevey. Is everyone alright?"

He gestured to the four death eaters, "Looks like they had four fatalities, but, yes, my family is alright. They're hiding in the cellar." He looked at the rapidly reassembling front of his house, "Looks like your folk have things under control?"

Tonks nodded, "Yes, they do." She pointed at the two with the bullet holes in their foreheads and asked, "Did you do that?"

He indicated the rifle, "With this. Normally, you can't kill a man with a .22, but they were at close range and they didn't trouble themselves about cover until I put their leader down. They just killed my favourite milk cow then walked up to the house, bold as brass and opened fire with them wands they carry. I just happen to have a knack for seeing in the dark and gave them a welcome they'll never forget. I kept them guessing until your two friends arrived then I popped the second one while he was distracted. After that I couldn't do anything more they were moving around a lot and I didn't want to hit the wrong one."

Tonks shook her head, "You are a very brave man. We're going to post guards here in case any more of them show up. Mr. Creevey, you and your family are going to have to go into protection until this conflict is over."

He shook his head, "Unless you folk have someone who can run a dairy farm, I'll have to stay. I can look after myself. I'll send my wife and children with you if they'll agree to go, but I'm staying."

That was when the ministry wizards began to arrive and the order members left.

A/N- Am I writing that bad that I get barely one or two reviews? If it is so tasteless, please do let me know. Criticism or appreciation, both should be doled out and not kept in.


	5. Chapter 5

**St. Mungo's**

When Sirius Black arrived with Emmeline at St. Mungo's, the healers took her away immediately, asking him to wait outside. He had spent an hour in grim anticipation, with no word from the healers before Remus showed up.

As soon as Remus arrived, Sirius lunged for his friend, engulfed him in a hug and broke down crying. Remus let him cry for a good 5 minutes before he asked, "What happened, Sirius? Is she alright?"

Sirius wailed, "I don't know. As soon as I arrived here, they took her inside and asked me to wait here. It's been an hour, yet I have no news. I'm scared Moony."

Remus attempted to comfort him, "Don't worry. She'll be fine, Sirius."

Sirius was still inconsolable but reined in his breath and asked him, "What happened over there?"

Despite the gravity of the moment, Remus snorted, "Mr. Creevey proved to be more than a handful for them. He's a combat hardened veteran and had a firearm at hand. The death eaters knew nothing about firearms or how devastating they can be. They walked in boldly when the first one was shot down. The second one was taken down when you had just apparated in and distracted them."

Sirius couldn't help but smile, "Good for him. May be with a lesson like that, they won't be so quick to attack muggles."

Remus shook his head, "No. Won't make any difference. None of them escaped to tell the tale. We handed the only survivor over to Moody."

Sirius's eyes widened just thinking about what that prisoner had in store. He asked, "What did our people tell The Daily Prophet?"

Remus said, "Dora would have given them a different story than what happened. No need to tell the death eaters what really happened, right? Doing so would take away the advantage Mr. Creevey has however the General has been briefed about the situation."

Sirius nodded, "Did you inform anyone else?"

Remus shook his head, "Not yet. I was going to wait for the morning and see what the healers have to say about Emmeline's condition. What curse was she hit with?"

Sirius grimaced, "I really don't know. It looked like it could be a modified form of the Bone liquefier curse. Mercifully she reached here in time. I suppose that the healers are trying to perform the counter curse on her but they have had no success so far."

Remus's eyes went amber for a moment, "They have kept you waiting long enough. Let's find out what's going on in there." Putting action to words, he took Sirius by the arm and they walked through to the treatment room.

When the witch at the reception desk started to try and stop them, she got one look at Remus's face and sat back down.

When they arrived in the treatment room, the healer was chanting in a low voice, his face sheened with sweat. He looked exhausted and worried. The sound of their entrance caused him to look up. He made another incantation and with a final wave of his wand, renewed the Stasis charm. He was pale and buckling at the knees. Sirius and Remus each caught one of his arms and carried him to a chair before he collapsed.

When he was able to speak, he said, "I don't think I can save her."

Remus asked, "It looks like a bone liquefier curse. Surely you can dispel that?"

The healer with a certain streak of pride answered, "Sure. I could do that before I left Hogwarts. But this?", he gestured to the woman laying on the bed, "I don't know what this is. The stasis charm can't stop death forever and I don't know what to do."

Sirius took in the very young appearance of the healer. He asked, "You look like you didn't leave Hogwarts all that long ago. Did you get a consult from anyone about this case?"

He looked up, "Sure I did. I consulted with our on-call curse breaker. I even put in a call to Gringotts but they don't know what this is either. It's the middle of the night and most of them won't even return my calls. If we can't get her some help, I fear that she won't last until morning."

Sirius had the healer by his robes and growled, "What do you mean? You are a healer, damn it! You are supposed to know this stuff."

Remus extricated the healer from his grasp, "Padfoot! Release him. He is not at fault here."

Sirius felt helpless and vented his frustration on the wall pounding his fists in frustration, "Damn it! Damn It! Damn It!"

Remus was also frustrated. If something happened to Emmeline, the death eater who had been captured at the Creevey farm would be in for lot of pain. He was also feeling helpless that he could do nothing to help Emmeline in this condition. Helpless, that is what his whole life had been. He was helpless when he was a child and would transform at every full moon. He was helpless when James and Lily were killed, Peter was allegedly murdered and Sirius was carted off to Azkaban. He was helpless when he had to watch Harry from a distance when he was teaching at Hogwarts. He had been helpless all his life but the lad had alleviated his troubles. Since he had come back from the mystics... The mystics! Yes they could help. They certainly knew enough to be able to cure this. They would have to ask Harry though.

Remus caught hold of Sirius's shoulder, "Padfoot, don't lose hope. Let's ask Harry if he knows someone who can help us. I am sure he had mentioned that he has some friends like that."

Sirius understood what he was alluding to. He pulled out his mirror and said loudly on it, "Harry Potter."

The mirror buzzed and a minute later, Harry's face came into view. By the looks of it, he was not in his dorm where he should have been but somewhere out in the open. Harry grinned at him, "Are you keeping an eye on me, father?"

Sirius frowned, "Where are you?"

Sirius heard someone giggle in the background. Harry, who was still grinning, said, "I'm at the top of the Astronomy Tower watching the stars. What's the matter?"

Sirius asked, "Who's there with you?"

Susan Bones came into view, ensconced in Harry's arms, "Any problem, Sirius?"

Remus snatched the mirror from Sirius, "Cub, Emmeline was attacked. We're in St. Mungo's. The healers are unable to cure her. Do you think you can help us?"

Harry's expression went serious instantly, "I'll be there in 10 minutes. Wait for me."

They ended the connection. Harry, who had been having an impromptu star-gazing date with Susan Bones on the top of the Astronomy Tower stood abruptly, "Sue, I need to go. Emmeline is in danger. You can take my cloak and return to your dorm. I'll fill you in as soon as I get back."

She took the cloak from him and donned it, "Good luck Harry. She will be fine."

Harry took a moment to consult the Marauder's Map. Vikram and Dumbledore were both in their offices. Good, that meant he didn't have to look everywhere for them. He vanished from the top of the Astronomy tower to re-appear outside of Vikram's office. He wrapped smartly on the professor's door. A moment later, the mystic who masqueraded as the DADA professor answered the door, not a hint of dishevelment or fatigue about him.

Vikram looked Harry up and down before saying, "Harry, what is the matter?"

Harry hurriedly told him everything. The moment he understood the situation, the Defense Professor sent his patronus to Dumbledore telling him, "Lift the enchantments on the castle for 10 minutes. I am accompanying Harry Potter on an urgent errand to London."

With the patronus away, Harry said, "Start heading for the main gates. I'm grabbing my potions and I'll meet you there."

Vikram nodded and started toward the grand staircase at a speed that would put men a quarter of his age to shame. Harry ran around the nearest corner then disappeared to re-appear in the bathroom on his dorm floor. A few seconds of rifling his trunk and he had what he needed. It didn't take long and he was quiet about it. Seconds later, he was back in the bathroom. A few seconds after that, he emerged from the shadow of a tree near the gate where Vikram was waiting.

When they neared the gates, Hagrid was standing there, having already opened the gates for them to leave. When they came pelting through the gate, he bellowed, "Harry, where yeh going?"

Harry waved to him, "We're in a hurry Hagrid. I'll tell you about it later."

As they stepped past the gates, Vikram grabbed his hand and they were gone.

Since it was past midnight, there was not a soul on the roads. They apparated to the front entrance of the hospital. As soon as they landed, Harry entered the hospital with Vikram right on his heels. His appearance in the hospital caused murmuring and excitement but he did not care. He asked the receptionist where Emmeline was. They ran to the treatment room where the most urgent cases went.

When Sirius saw him, Sirius hugged him fiercely. Harry had to push him off saying, "If we are to save Emmeline, I'll have to act fast. Where is she?"

Sirius pointed to the ward and Harry entered followed by Vikram. The healer tried to stop them, "Please stay out. You would cause more problems for her. We are trying to heal her."

Vikram barked, "We? All I see is you. I can see how good you are at it. Stand aside and let me have a look."

The healer looked at him skeptically, "Are you a healer?"

Vikram growled, "I have seen more dark curses than you have learnt about, boy. Now step aside or I would have to push you out of the way."

The healer was scared of Vikram's imposing presence. He started to leave. Vikram snapped, "Stay. You may learn something." Vikram had his wand out and was casting detection spells on her. After a minute, he turned to Harry, "Potter, this is a simple case. I would like you to tell me what you think."

Harry recalled his basic diagnosis skills from his time with Charak. He cast three detection spells, based on what he could already see he had narrowed the curse down that much before he needed to confirm what he suspected. He turned to Vikram, "This looks like bone liquefying combined with blood boiling and just a bit of a nasty twist. How did I do Professor?"

Vikram smiled broadly, "That would get you an O in my class. How would you treat it?"

Harry responded with, "I would use the counter curse for blood boiling, followed with the counter curse for bone liquifying and finally an invigoration draught."

Vikram nodded, "Please proceed Mr. Peverell."

Without thinking, Harry popped out the Acacia wand he and performed the counter curses. It took him about ten minutes, but when he was done, Emmeline's condition improved immediately. With the spell-work done, Harry lifted the stasis charm then administered the invigoration draught from his personal stores. The work wasn't very complicated but it did take a considerable amount of power. Perhaps a healer who was new and hadn't seen curses combined like that before didn't know what he was dealing with and had exhausted himself before figuring it out.

It had been less than 20 minutes since Remus had called Harry for help. The colour had returned to Emmeline's face. She coughed a few times and her eyes fluttered open.

She saw Harry standing near her. She grinned, "Harry! How delightful to see you." Almost instantly her eyes rolled up into her head and she passed out again.

Vikram turned to the healer, "Now you can tend to her. After making sure that all her vital signs are normal give her a sleep potion. She will need to rest at least for 2 days before she can be up and about."

Harry asked him, "What happened to the other healers? I mean I get it that you are on night duty and you are new but you could have called on other healers to help you. Where is healer Lynn? I thought she would be here."

The healer shook his head, "The other healers are on different cases tonight. I got a consult with our curse breaker, but she doesn't have much more experience than me with this stuff. The curse breaker from Gringotts hasn't returned my call yet. I was doing what I could until someone was available to back me up or help me figure out what to do. Would you tell me what counter curses you performed on her?"

Harry exchanged a glance with Vikram who nodded, "I did a counter curse for a bone liquefier and a blood boiling curse. Some vermin has made a new curse by combining these two so it would have taken some time for you to find a counter curse and it could have proved fatal. Besides, you don't look too good yourself. You had better get some rest and hope that no new cases arrive before your back up gets here."

When Harry came out of the ward, Sirius was slumped on the bench and Remus was sitting beside him, whispering words in his ear and telling him not to lose hope. Sirius at that moment looked as frail as he had looked when Harry had met him for the first time in the Shrieking Shack. His eyes had the same haunted look about him and he looked scared. Amelia and Alice had arrived by then. They were sitting beside Sirius. When he saw Harry, he asked frantically, "Harry how is she? Is she going to be alright?"

Vikram took the lead, "Mr. Black, she is fine. She will need to recuperate for 2 days before she will be up and about. It was lucky that we were at hand or the healers would have taken a long time before they could find the counter curse."

Sirius folded his hands in respectful manner, "I am indebted to you for having helped her. If something would have happened to her, I do not know how I would have survived."

Harry was talking to Alice, "Godmother, what you are doing here?"

She replied, "Do-not-call-me-Nymphadora Tonks reported to the ministry that Emmeline was injured and was taken to St. Mungo's. Amelia and I were just ending our shift for the day. I thought we should come over and see how she was doing."

Sirius who was now feeling relieved asked him, "Pup, what were you doing atop the astronomy tower with Susan?"

Amelia arched an eyebrow, "Did you two break curfew again?"

Vikram supplied, "It is a daily happening for them, Lady Bones. They sneak up to the tower for star gazing almost every night."

Alice gave such a look to Harry that it made him blush, "I can see you have inherited James's charms son. Good for you. Just don't do anything that might be embarrassing to you or her."

Amelia put her two knuts in, "Agreed. And if I hear that you two have broken curfew again then…"

Harry hastily said, "No, I won't let you hear about it again." He turned to Sirius, "How did she get injured Padfoot?"

Sirius started telling him about everything from the attack on the Grangers to the attack on the Creeveys and how Emmeline had been hit. After he was done telling, Harry asked him, "How did the death eaters get their slimy meat-hooks on the addresses of muggle-born students? I mean someone from the ministry must have told them because they didn't get this information from Hogwarts."

Comprehension dawned on Amelia and she cursed loudly, "Of course! Someone has accessed Mafalda's department because that's the only place where the record is kept. I will have Alastor look into the matter and find out what's there to find."

Vikram addressed him, "Mr. Peverell, it is very late in the night and I am sure you have classes tomorrow. I would rather that we leave for the castle now."

Taking their leave, the duo left for Hogwarts. This time they did not apparate. They took a floo from the hospital to the school in Dumbledore's office. The Headmaster was sitting in his seat looking agitated.

As Harry stepped out of the fireplace, the headmaster asked him, "Harry what happened? Where did you go?"

Vikram addressed him, "Emmeline Vance was fatally injured. The healers were not able to cure her. We were called to help. Suffice to say that she is out of danger and will be up and about in 2 days."

**The ministry**

"How did you miss such a crucial thing, Alastor? You're supposed to be the paranoid one. I expected better of you", Frank Longbottom was shaking his head, trying to deny the report his Master Auror had just made about the attacks on the families of muggle-born students.

Soon after the attack, Alastor had called a meeting of his confidantes. One of them had pointed him towards the obvious flaw, something that they had over-looked when they were covering their bases. Mafalda Hopkirk's office had a list of the muggle born students along with their addresses. No one had thought to secure the sensitive information which had been just sitting around. During the previous war, the death eaters had not thought to do such strategic attacks. Therefore no one had thought that they would do so this time around either.

"What 's done is done. What have you done towards securing the information now?", asked Frank.

"This morning Alice told me that perhaps Mafalda Hopkirk's office had been breached. When I went to investigate her personally, she tried to kill me. She tried to banish a knife at me but I escaped by a hair's breadth. Grudgingly, I had to stun her. She is obviously under the Imperious curse. She is being kept under observation in St. Mungo's at the moment. If the healers are successful, we can hope for her to return to us within a few months. As for securing the homes of the muggle born students, we have placed observers to watch for death eater activity. They aren't fully qualified Aurors. Their orders are to disapparate and report in if they spot any trouble. We hope to be able to respond quickly enough to prevent any deaths and take down any would be assassins. The muggle fellytone idea has already saved lives. Throughout the night, we have been receiving calls from distressed muggles. We were able to dispatch teams to help them. I figure we would have to think of a permanent solution to this problem before our resources are exhausted protecting muggle-born students and their families."

Frank nodded, "Do you have any ideas?"

Moody shook his head, "Not at present. I would rather that you call a meeting of everyone. Ask them. When there are more people giving suggestions, there is bound to be a solution which can be of use to us."

Frank nodded, "Keep one thing in mind, Alastor. We cannot let them harm the muggle-born or their families. If we fail to stop any such attacks, it would look like we are either weak or that we don't care. Either one of those would be bad."

Moody nodded, "Aye sir."

Frank asked further, "How many did we lose yesterday?"

Moody took some time to reply, "We lost 1 in Yorkshire, 1 in Wimbledon and 1 in Hampstead. Emmeline Vance was hit with a dark curse. She was taken to St. Mungo's. She is expected to make a full recovery in about two days. Sirius Black is there with her."

Frank nodded, "I will visit her later. For now try to find a way to secure the muggle-borns."

Moody clicked his heels and walked out of the room.

* * *

The death eater Mulciber Jr. was the only death eater who survived the attack at the Creevey Farm last night. He was tied to a chair with magic restraining shackles and whimpering. He knew he was in the clutches of the ministry. The ministry's choicest investigators would be dealing with him. From what he could guess, he was in a 10 by 10 room which was really small for a holding cell and he was tied to a chair in the middle of it. The room was dark without a trace of any light.

He could hear heavy foot-steps coming towards the room he was in. In addition to the footsteps, he fancied that he could hear another sound like a cane or something making the sound *tap* *tap* like the sound of wood on hard floor. Taking together, he understood Mad-eye Moody, the horror of Death Eaters was personally coming to investigate him.

When the door to the room opened, his worst fears were confirmed. Moody walked in. Moody's reputation made the death eater shiver in fright seeing him in the flesh. He however decided that he would not say anything to him. No blood traitor would be able to force him to speak. With a flick of his wand, the room was lighted and Mulciber winced. The floor around him was splattered with blood and some of it was on the walls too. In fact blood was encrusted on the handles of the chair where his hands were tied. Perhaps someone had tried to free his hands and the chains had dug into his skin. He could only imagine the horrors which had been perpetrated upon his fellow death eaters.

"Charming, isn't it?", growled Moody. "You scum love blood and gore so I thought I should show you some. Now, will you show me your face by yourself or will I have the pleasure of removing it for you?"

Mulciber sneered, "You can't take it off, fool. Only the Dark Lord or I can."

Moody hunched over and Put his battle-scarred visage right in his prisoner's face, growling maliciously, "Is that what you're thinking? You're sadly mistaken, laddie. If pain's what you're wanting, I'm glad to oblige."

Saying so, Moody whipped out a dagger from his robes. The blade was goblin silver. The razor-sharp edge glinted evilly in the dim light. From his own experience, Mulciber knew that goblin silver hardly ever dented or needed to be sharpened. It could cut through stone like parchment. Moody deliberately sliced into the man's face where the mask was attached. With a flap loose, he tore the mask away leaving a wound down the side of his face from forehead to chin. The prisoner howled with the burning pain as his ruined face bled copiously. The mask was bent and crumpled but it did not come off.

Moody was a bit disappointed that he had not got it off in one go. He grumbled, "Looks like I should have cut deeper. Not to worry, this time I will make it count."

With another swipe, this time with a deeper incision at the other side of his face, the mask finally came off his face. Now his face was covered in his blood.

Moody barked a laugh, "See, I told you it would come off."

The death eater was howling in pain. Moody seemed to be getting pleasure from his cries, "Cry as much as you want. No one is going to interfere. This room is surrounded by some very high quality silencing wards."

After about 5 minutes, Moody stopped the bleeding with a wave of his wand. He asked him, "Now are you going to answer my questions?"

The death eater still had some defiance left in him. He shook his head in reply. Moody sighed, "You've brought this on yourself. Don't complain later that I didn't give you a chance."

With that Moody vanished the robes on the upper part of his body. He started pealing away parts of the man's skin, applying heat here, cold there, always careful to not allow too much bleeding, always making sure that every fiber of nerve felt every sensation. It was painful, but nothing like the cruciactus curse. But then, when Voldemort was finished making his point, it left no mark upon the skin, no lasting damage. When it was over, it was over. This just went on and on. Moody didn't even ask any questions. He just went on about his work while the death eater howled in pain.

What the unfortunate prisoner did not know was that Moody was not only a paranoid sadist but he was also a skilled and experienced torturer. He knew that every man had a breaking point. He was willing to do whatever it took to make his prisoner talk. He wouldn't waste much breath asking questions until his guest was ready to tell him everything.

After he was satisfied with his handiwork, Alastor turned to him, "Are you ready to talk or would you rather that I entertain myself some more?"

The death eater spat at him, "You can kill me but you can't make me speak."

Alastor chuckled, then growled, "You sad sack of dragon dung. You don't get to die until I say you die. I can keep you alive as long as I want until I get bored or you tell me everything I want to know."

With that Moody took some salt and rubbed it into his wounds making him howl in pain. Alastor conjured a chair and sat down before the death eater to watch him writhe in pain. After 5 minutes, he asked him again, "So, ready to talk? I can go on for days, weeks, months, whatever it takes. Really, I hope that you don't talk. This is so entertaining. Next time, I think that I'll drill a hole in your body and fill it with salt. Imagine how much pleasure I would get hearing your guttural cry? I do not need to kill you to show you hell. I will keep giving this treatment to you twice a day until you decide to speak. One day eventually your mind will break. The choice is yours."

Mulciber realized he had no option other than to talk. If Moody were to kill him, that would have been more merciful than being tortured by him. But Moody meant to torture him, play with him and not let him die. The amount of injuries he was inflicting upon him should have killed him already, but somehow Moody was not letting him die.

"You think I would let you die?", Moody was growling as if he understood what Mulciber had been thinking, "This is my territory and you can't die here unless I wish it. You'd better speak and save what little is left of your pathetic life."

With great difficulty he croaked, "I. I'm ready..." He could not however complete his statement before his right arm was trying to tear itself out of the shackles and strangle him to death. Moody had broken death eaters before. He had been anticipating something like that. With a single swift blow of the knife, his hand was severed from his body. Almost lazily Moody cast a cauterizing charm at the stump of his hand and staunched the bleeding immediately. Releasing the shackle, he let the severed limb fall to the floor and destroyed it with incendio.

Moody turned to him, "Now start singing or it would not take me a moment to reduce you into a piece of charbroiled meat."

The death eater started speaking, "I was sent on a mission to kill the mud-bloods (Moody sent a bludgeoner at him for his poor choice of words). Rookwood was supposed to be leading us. Dolohov pointed out that he was a ward master and not a fighter therefore he would be useless if the Aurors turned up therefore he was kept back."

Moody barked, "What is Voldemort doing?"

The death eater flinched hearing the name of his master, "The Dark Lord is out of wizarding Britain for now. He has left Bellatrix in-charge and she has placed Rabbastan, Rodolphus and Dolohov in-charge of training his troops while She is busy in the meetings of the inner circle. She is giving them orders about supposed missions of the Dark Lord."

Moody asked him, "Where are they hiding?"

The death eater simply said, "That is a thing I cannot say."

Moody sighed, "Is it under a Fidelius?"

The death eater nodded and Moody let it drop. He asked him further, "Tell me all about his forces."

The death eater started telling, "There are about 30 giants, 300 wizards and 300 werewolves in the castle at all times. It is a five story structure and perhaps dates back to at least 5 centuries ago. There are 13 members in his inner circle- Bellatrix, Travers, Rookwood, Lestrange Brothers, Dolohov, my father Mulciber Sr, Goyle, Parkinson, Nott, Yaxley, Macnair and Malfoy. Malfoy was accepted back into the inner circle after the Dark Lord openly punished him before the entire castle with a variety of dark curses."

Moody had something more left to ask of him, "What are his next targets apart from the muggle born?"

The death eater told him, "Bellatrix is trying to find ways to attack the Ministry Officials. The Dark Lord had ordered her to make efforts to eliminate General Longbottom, Harold Peverell, Amelia Bones and Albus Dumbledore."

Moody barked, "If you are not in the inner circle how do you know so much?"

The death eater replied, "My father told me. He is in the inner circle and has been given the duty."

Moody was making notes on everything that he was being told. When he was done, he clapped his hands and Gawain Robards entered. Moody turned to him, "I'm done with him, Gawain. You can ask him what you want but don't present him before the Wizengamot yet. I presume that Sirius will want to have a chat with him."

Robards grinned evilly, "Sure. I will send him a message."

**Hogwarts**

The first thing Harry did was to collect Susan outside the Badger's hole for breakfast. They had not been going on their daily runs since the winter term started. The corridors were too cold and the students were reluctant to get themselves up and get to their work outs. He had decided not to bother them for now, but once February arrived, he would be having them run four laps around the castle before they did anything else.

She was there outside the Badger's hole, dressed and ready to go for breakfast. As soon as she saw him, she pulled him into an embrace and squeezed him tightly. Harry asked her with a tone of surprise in his voice, "What's the matter, Sue?"

Before he could answer, the door to the badger's hole opened and Hannah stepped out, "Get a room you two. I daresay the castle has enough of them. You don't need to make every one jealous with your snogging in the corridors."

Susan threw a dirty glare at her and said, "Just because Longbottom is daft doesn't mean that you have to rain on my parade, Abbott."

Hannah raised her hands in surrender, "Don't get angry, Susie. I was just yanking your wand." She turned to Harry, "Where's Neville anyway?"

"Right here", said Neville who had come up while they were talking.

Harry offered his arm to Susan. They linked arms and walked off towards the Great Hall for breakfast.

This morning, they chose to sit at the Hufflepuff table at the far end where nobody would disturb them. Hermione was sitting close to him. Colin was sitting with Ginny at the Gryffindor Table. Harry hollered for him, "Oi Colin. Come join us over here."

Colin was surprised that Harry invited him to join him at his table. He walked over and sat beside Harry as Neville scooted over a spot to make room for him. After he was seated, Harry inaudibly raised a silencing ward around them. He turned to them, "Hermione and Colin, I have some news for you both. Please don't shout before I'm done speaking."

Hermione was apprehensive but encouraged him, "What is it? What has happened?"

Harry took a deep breath before he started speaking, "Yesterday, three death eaters led by Lucius Malfoy went to Hampstead to attack your house. Your father called in the ministry for help. The ministry dispatched Aurors to help. One of the Aurors was killed but your family is safe. They have been relocated to Plymouth for the time being to a safe house of the Order. They will be kept there and looked after until the war is over."

Colin was frantic, "What happened with my family? Are they safe? Was anyone hurt?"

Harry shook his head, "I was getting to that. 5 death eaters went to your house to attack. Your father gave a good account of himself with the rifle that he carries. He shot two of them. Sirius took out two more of them. Emmeline Vance was severely injured while trying to defend your house."

Susan gasped, "Is she going to be alright? Is that where you went to in the middle of the night?"

Harry nodded, "Yes. I had to do some counter curses that the healer couldn't figure out. She's going to be fine. I'm going to see her tomorrow when it's a Hogsmeade weekend."

Colin interrupted, "You didn't finish telling me about my family."

Harry turned to him, "Your family didn't suffer any loss except for your father's favorite cow. He's not going to be in any trouble for killing death eaters. There are laws about defending your home against terrorists. Details of the attacks against muggles are not being published because we are at war and we don't want the other side to learn why they are suffering such devastating losses. As far as anyone else is concerned, the Aurors are responsible for 100% of the death eater losses. Your family has been moved to a safe house of the Order of the Phoenix with the exception of your father. He's staying at the farm."

At that moment Luna drifted over to their table. She shoved Justin aside and sat in his place. She said to Harry, "The Byangoma told me that the goblins are making an offer which you should not refuse. It will be useful to you in the long run."

Harry said confusedly, "What offer?"

Luna did not answer. She just looked at him with her half-smile, then turned and went back to the Ravenclaw table.

When the owl post started to come in, Susan attracted his attention to Hedwig, "Harry, isn't that Hedwig?"

Harry looked a little scared, "Oh Merlin! I have been ignoring her and I don't know what she's going to do to me."

As it turned out, Hedwig was in no mood to trifle with him. She landed before him, glared hard at him while barking a hoot. Harry hastily relieved her of her burden. She pecked him on his finger while he was untying his letter. Then without waiting for him to retort, she turned tail and took off to the Owlery.

The letter was sealed with the personal seal of the Goblin King of Gringotts. He wondered if this was what Luna had been talking about. He wondered what Ragnok would want from him. He cautiously opened the letter:

_"Lord Peverell_

_Recently I received a letter from the Chief Warlock. He wanted to know if we could conduct the inheritance tests for the students at the castle. This is an opportunity which would reopen a lot of vaults which have been shut due to inactivity and reinstate several old families again. This is also an opportunity to increase the number of vassals of your house and increase your power manifold. I thought I would offer this to you before I told anyone else about it._

_This is an opportunity which is beneficial for Gringotts as well as you. Being an ally, I am hoping you would honour the commitment made between us and honour your side of the agreement when we have been nothing but helpful to you._

_Wishing to see you in person soon._

_Ragnok_

_King of Goblin Nation, Gringotts"_

Harry read the letter and slipped it into his bag. Hermione asked him, "Who wrote the letter, Harry?"

Harry shook his head, "Just some business concerns.". He turned to Susan, "Would you come on a date with me to a very fine restaurant in Muggle London tomorrow?"

She instantly agreed, "Of course I will."

Since the next day was Hogsmeade Weekend and the day after was a Saturday, they had two days off classes. Harry took leave of the castle telling Dumbledore he had some family business. Susan had agreed to go to Hogsmeade with him the next day and return while Harry stayed to deal with some business which had come up.

**Germany**

When Voldemort left wizarding Britain, the first place he wanted to go was Romania where most of the Vampire Covens were. The Vampires were essential for his quest and he needed them but the distance between Wizarding Britain and Romania was about a thousand odd miles. He had to go through Germany and Austria to get there. Since he was on a quest to win allies, he decided to win and conquer whoever happened to stand in his path to domination. The first country to be in the way was Germany which was where the campaign of Grindelwald had started and where Voldemort landed in an effort to boost his campaign against Wizarding Britain.

There were still many families in Germany that dabbled in the Dark Arts. There however was no reigning dark lord. They made a united front under the aegis of _Gilde Der dunklen Kunste_ i.e. The Guild of Dark Arts which was a collective name for their organization. Since the Grindelwald wars, the ICW had given such a blow to the Dark Faction that no dark lord had dared to raise his head. Add to that the fact that Nurmengard was in Germany and it made a strong deterrent for them.

For some time, Voldemort had the audacity to consider raiding Nurmengard. That would have gained him some very strong followers. This prison contained some of the most powerful, notorious and dangerous dark wizards in history. However one look at the Prison's security layout and he had changed his mind. The prison was supposed to be guarded by legions of Dragons, Wyverns and, it was rumored, Lethifolds. The guards of Nurmengard were members of the war wizard contingent of ICW and adept in magics. He had heard that Nurmengard did not employ any one as a guard unless they were at least as powerful as a Sorcerer which meant that Voldemort would be heavily outnumbered. Additionally, most of the prisoners had magic suppressing runes burnt into their bodies which would stop them from doing any magic meaning they would be useless unless those runes were negated. There was no guarantee that the ward breakers in his ranks would have the ability to negate those runes or be able to do it without killing or maiming their hosts. He also knew that the guards were under orders to kill, without hesitation, anyone attempting to break out or anyone assisting with such an attempt. They couldn't really kill him, but it would be highly inconvenient if they destroyed his body or managed to capture him. Although being a guest of the ICW interrogation chambers might be interesting for a time, he had to get on with his plans. On the balance, the possible gains from the adventure did not justify the risks.

He decided to negotiate with the guild of dark wizards instead. Making some inquiries, he came to know that the guild was currently headed by Waldhem Meyer who had been one of the disciples of Abaddon when Voldemort was learning dark arts from him. He was also told that the guild headquarters were situated within a fort. It was manned by 40 wizards on the walls with another 40 on each floor at all times i.e. a total of 160 guards around the clock. From what he was told, they had been ordered to kill without asking questions if someone showed up without an invitation. They were very secretive. The address of their head quarters was not generally known, except for its members.

He arranged for a message to be sent to the Guild asking assistance from them in his revolution. He was sent an address with a note that he was to prove that he was worthy before they would offer him any help. If he failed, dead people can't ask for favors. He knew he could not die but was amused at the idea of showing his prowess. It would give him a chance to exert all his strength and try to match his might with them. It would show how much of his edge he still retained. He also decided to be ruthless and show no mercy. Perhaps this tour would give him the edge he needed when he was fighting his nemesis.

**Hogsmeade**

The day of Hogsmeade weekend had been the best so far. It was still winter but the snow had stopped falling and they could go out. Harry met Susan in the entry hall where they joined the line of students waiting to go out. He had already asked for permission to stay out of the castle for the rest of the weekend and Dumbledore had agreed.

Susan was dressed in a badger yellow skirt, a tank top with a woolen robe that provided some much needed warmth for her and a scarf around her neck. She also wore a belt made of silver links interconnected with each other with the buckle fashioned into head of a dragon with emerald eyes and flat heels that went well with her gown. To Harry's amazement she was talking and giggling with Daphne Greengrass of all people.

"What are we talking about?", Harry asked Susan and Daphne.

Susan said, "Daphne here was just giving me a bit of interesting information."

Harry arched an eyebrow, "If it would not be too inconvenient to you, would you mind sharing with me?"

Daphne grinned, "Well, Malfoy was being consoled by Millicent Bulstrode yesterday."

Harry almost choked in surprise, "What? Did I hear that right? Do you mean to say that Draco Malfoy and Millicent Bulstrode are now an item?"

She nodded, "Why is it such a surprise? Millie is actually a very sensible girl. She does not really involve herself in these blood purity matters. Her father may be a death eater but she has stayed out of it. Her mother has been a good influence on her."

Harry asked her, "Her mother? Wasn't she one of them?"

Daphne shook her head, "Before Bulstrode joined Voldemort he was in love with Millie's mother who was a half-blood. A few years after the first war, she died in some potion brewing accident. Millie's father never cared much for his daughter. He left her to her own devices. She had no friends except Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy so she did what they expected of her. However when this year started, she has been staying away from them. Her father rejoined Voldemort and she decided to stay above all the pureblood tripe that they spew. She noticed Malfoy being all alone and started sitting with him in the common room trying to talk to him. Well Malfoy has been very comfortable with her. Pansy being out of the castle certainly helped matters along because otherwise Millie would not have been so bold."

Harry snorted, "Well that's good on him then. Perhaps his ego won't be so inflated now."

Susan poked him in the ribs, "Are we ready to go?"

Harry presented his arm to her, "Sure my lady. Let's go to Hogsmeade."

When they joined the line going out of the castle Daphne was just behind them. It was a long line and very slow moving at that.

As the line grew, Daphne pointed back at the end of the line. Harry couldn't believe his eyes. There was Malfoy joining the line at a leisurely pace accompanied by Millicent Bulstrode. Millicent looked like she had made some extra effort to pretty herself up. She wore robes made of finest silk; she had her hair tied in a braid falling down her back. She would have looked like any other ordinary student except that Malfoy only came up to her shoulder but there was nothing to it. She was not walking too close to Malfoy but they were conversing in whispers. Harry could see that Millicent's cheeks were tinted pink with all the incredulous eyes upon her.

Susan snapped her fingers in front of his face, "My hero, what are you thinking about?"

"Nothing Sue, I just feel like they are a match made in heaven."

Susan snorted, "It seems to be doing some good for Bulstrode at least. I have never seen her looking so pleased about anything."

"How soon do you reckon it will be before they are going at it like rabbits?", asked Fred as he cut into the line with Tracy.

Harry asked him, "You just finished your own sentence! Where is your other half?"

Tracy huffed, "Right here, Potter. I'm going to be his other half for the day. I had to fight tooth and nail to get this one to myself today."

Harry smirked, "Since you didn't finish is sentence for him, I find it doubtful."

Tracy mock glared at him, "Care to explain that?"

In an attempt to evade answering, Harry asked her, "Has he asked you out formally?"

Fred interrupted, "We can talk about myself later. Answer my question first."

Daphne answered his question, "Well Millie is not one who would just give it up. She knows her limits. She will not let him take liberties with her unless they are getting married. So, for now we can safely say that they are not going to be at it like rabbits any time soon."

Fred grinned, "Excellent. I'll get the betting pool started immediately. Harrykins, what do you think should be the odds?"

Harry glanced at Susan. With his best lop-sided grin he said, "Sorry Fred, You're going to have to count me out on this pool. It's in questionable taste at best."

Susan cooed, "Good answer, Harry. Now let's move along before Filch gets mad waiting for us."

Filch had been probing every one with the probity probes. He sniffed George in particular. He probed him extra hard.

When they were at a safe distance, he asked, "Mate, why was Filch sniffing you?"

George grinned, "Fred left dung bombs in all his robes."

The Ministry had provided extra security for the weekend. There were at least five teams of five Aurors each posted in the village led by some of the Senior Aurors. Many of them saw Harry and hailed him. He returned their greetings. He had decided long ago that he could not live a private life when he was out in public so he would answer their greetings, or nod in their direction or smile for someone who needed it.

When they reached the Three Broom Sticks, Daphne was still with them. Harry couldn't figure out what was the deal between Daphne and Susan because Susan was beaming in Daphne's presence while Daphne was utterly comfortable with her as opposed to earlier when both witches barely tolerated each other.

When they entered The Three Broomsticks, Harry asked Susan, "Ready to go to this famous place we talked about?"

Susan shook her head, "It's still too early, Harry. We're going to get a Butterbeer first."

Harry expected at that moment that Daphne would find Tracy and sit with her or may be Astoria but Daphne joined them at their table. He could see that there was certain camaraderie between the two witches. He was kind of scared. When they were not talking to each other, he kind of understood it. But this? This was incomprehensible. He sighed mentally again, wondering why the mystics hadn't taught him about witches.

He ordered three butterbeers for them. They were chatting idly when Astoria turned up at their table. Without so much as a greeting, she sat herself at their table and commandeered Harry's butterbeer and started drinking it.

They looked at her quizzically but she wasn't bothered by it at all.

When it became apparent that she was not going to speak, Daphne asked her, "What are you doing here midget?"

Astoria protested, "I'm not a midget. I'm sitting here sipping butterbeer with you all. Is there a problem with that?"

Harry decided not to interfere with sibling rivalry. He quietly ordered another for himself. By then, Astoria had finished off Harry's first butterbeer.

She asked him, "Harry, how did you manage a truce between them?"

Harry spluttered, "Huh?"

Astoria snorted, "Truce. You know peace, ceasefire."

Harry protested, "I know what truce means. I have no idea why they're getting along so well now. They seem to have worked it out for themselves."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Fine then. Don't tell me anything. I'm not going to be the third…", She looked at her sister and Susan, "Fourth wheel!"

She stood up and walked away. Harry turned to Daphne, "Is Astoria always so…"

"Strange?" Daphne quipped. "No, she's in a good mood today. For her, that was downright polite."

Susan snorted, "I'd love to see the strange then."

Harry turned to Susan, "Sue, I have a lot to get done today. I would rather that we leave now for the lunch that we decided upon."

She nodded, "Alright Harry, but before we stop for lunch, I would love to go see Emmeline."

He nodded and turned to Daphne, "It was nice sharing a butterbeer with you, Daphne but we have some other errands to run before the day is over. Hopefully I'll see you in the castle later."

Susan chimed in, "Daphne do you have anything to do today?"

Daphne shook her head in the negative. Susan rubbed her hands in anticipation, "Excellent. Why don't you join us? I would love it if you can come along."

Harry thought perhaps Susan had drunk some weird potion which brought this change in her. She always tried to make some time just for the two of them. And here she was inviting Daphne along when he wanted to spend time with her. Well there was nothing to it but to agree to her wishes.

He turned to Daphne, "We would be delighted if you could join us."

**St. Mungo's**

Emmeline slowly opened her eyes. She found herself in a room she could not remember. The walls were white and bare, the only window was on the far side of the room and it was curtained. She was wearing what appeared to be a hospital gown and in a hospital bed.

Memories of the duel came flooding back into her mind. Their appearance at the Creevey farm, their duel with the death eaters, her taking a curse which was meant for Sirius, Sirius crying for her and her waking up once to find Harry before her. She thought she had dreamt it but it was real. She was really hit and had been hospitalized. Sirius was dozing in a chair at her side, her hand in his. She found it kind of cute. It warmed her heart to find him here.

She shook him lightly. He woke up at once. Seeing her conscious, he said brightly, "Emm, I'm so glad to see you awake again. I was so scared for you."

She croaked, "What happened?"

Sirius told her everything about the last night and what had happened. How the healers could not cure her. How Remus thought to call on Harry for help. How Harry had come in the middle of the night to help her. As he was finishing his account, he heard a commotion outside the ward. Within a second, he was out of his seat, heading for the door with his wand out. He told her, "I'll go see what that's about."

Before they flooed to St. Mungo's Harry had Dobby bring him a basket of fresh fruit from the cold storage at the Potter Manor. The manor had many fruit trees. They were laden with fruit during the season. With no one to eat them, the elves used all the fruit to make jams and things like that.

After he had dismissed Dobby to return to his duties they flooed to St. Mungo's. They walked directly to the third floor where an Auror had been posted on duty outside Emmeline's ward. Harry tried to enter the room directly when the Auror stopped him, "You cannot go inside."

Harry glared at him, "Do you know who I am?"

The Auror did not budge, "Mr. Black has ordered me not to allow anyone to enter and that includes you."

Harry was amused and it reflected in his tone, "My dear fellow, do you know who I am?"

The Auror calmly replied, "Yes, Lord Peverell I do but I have my orders. It's more than my job's worth if I let you in there."

Just then Sirius opened the door to the ward growling, "What is this commotion about?"

Harry beamed at him, "You couldn't have chosen a better moment to show up. I commend him for doing his duty so effectively."

Sirius dismissed the guard for the day before ushering the trio into the room. By then, Emmeline had cranked up the top of her bed so that she was sitting up when her visitors saw her.

She pulled Harry into an embrace and whispered, "Thank you for curing me, Harry."

Then Sirius remarked about his companions, "Well pup, I must say you are more charming than I have been. I was never in company of two very beautiful witches at once."

Emmeline glared at him, "What do you mean by that?"

He cringed, "Not to slant you, my love but I was just complimenting him."

Harry was blushing. He had no idea what to say. Emmeline came to his rescue, "hush you. He's a better wizard, plain and simple."

They visited for about an hour before Harry's tummy growled, reminding everyone in the room that he hadn't been to lunch yet. The trio took their leave of them.

When they left, Sirius said to her, "Emmeline, I wanted to do this in very grand style with all pomp and grandeur but last night made me realize that we should not waste another moment waiting for the perfect one."

She raised an eyebrow questioningly, "Care to explain that?"

Sirius dropped to one knee, "Since I don't have a ring at this moment, we'll have to do without. Emmeline Vance you have made my life happy. You have given me reason to stay alive again. Will you marry me?"

Emmeline could not believe her luck. She had been waiting for it and never expected it to be so abrupt. She could not speak for what seemed to her like years but were only minutes. When she did open her mouth, she was tearing up, "Of course I will marry you."

Sirius's happiness was unparalleled in that moment. He was cradling her in his embrace. She was crying on his shoulder, out of happiness. The door to the ward opened at that moment. Remus poked his head in.

He immediately tried to excuse himself, "Did I come at the wrong time?"

Sirius beckoned him in, "No, no. You have come at the right moment."

Remus was confused, "What do you mean? Why is she crying?"

Emmeline supplied, "Because he just proposed to me."

Remus was gob-smacked. He could not speak for a few minutes. When he found his voice, he asked, "Padfoot, what happened to pomp and grandeur? I waited for you to propose so that I could do it at the same time."

They chuckled.

"Well, this is indeed happy news. Now I get to plan weddings!", said Andromeda who had just come in.

**Hestia's Hearth**

Remus had told him that any patron had to make a reservation at least a week in advance to dine at Hestia's hearth generally and the wait could be as long as two weeks. He had sent Dobby with a letter to enquire if on the off chance, there was any place available with only 3 days notice. The restaurant owner saw the seal and the signature and he was not going to refuse. He kept a private parlour for just such customers. He sent a reply with Dobby that he could arrange a private parlour for him.

Since the restaurant was situated in Muggle London, It did not have any provision for portkey arrival or an apparition point. There was a floo address which changed every day. It was only told to those who had confirmed reservations. Others who could not come in through the floo had to walk in through the door like Remus and Tonks did the other day.

When Harry exited the floo in the floo chamber with Susan and Daphne in tow, the owner of the Restaurant Mr. O'Neill was waiting for them.

He warmly shook hands with Harry and said quite enthusiastically, "Welcome to my establishment, Mr. Peverell. It is indeed a good day for me."

He gave curt little bows to Susan and Daphne. He gave them a tour of the restaurant before he showed them to their parlor. The kitchen was not as big as the one at Hogwarts but it was big enough to accommodate at least 10 chefs who were busy cooking. The aroma of all the food being cooked was mouth watering. They wanted to get at it immediately but decided that it would have been considered bad manners. They let their host finish the little tour while he showed them the restaurant, the dining rooms and then finally led them to a private parlor situated away from others. The walls were cream colored with murals, paintings and portraits on the walls around them.

He led them to a table. Then he left them to their lunch, giving them the menu and serving them enough appetizers to feed a small army. They munched their way through the appetizers while they browsed through the menu. After deliberating for 10 minutes, they placed their order which not surprisingly was taken by Mr. O'Neill himself.

After he had retreated, Daphne asked him, "Do you get this sort of treatment everywhere you go?"

Susan chimed in, "Oh yes, pretty much everywhere."

Daphne looked at him, "How do you feel with all this attention on you?"

Harry took a deep breath before he started speaking, "Well Daphne…"

Daphne interrupted him, "Call me Daph. Everyone who is dear to me calls me Daph." He looked at Susan in apprehension but Susan looked like she was not bothered by it at all.

Harry sighed, "Well Daph, I've always been very uncomfortable with all the attention focused on me. Last summer I had some experiences that taught me better. I realized that since I can't stop people from gawking at me, I may as well use it for the good of the wizarding world. I can't run away from it so why try?"

Lunch was a two hour long affair. It passed very slowly. They talked with each other very comfortably until Harry realized it was getting late.

He turned to Susan, "Sue, I still have to go to the Bank. Why don't you two return to The Three Broomsticks and to the castle from there?"

Susan said to him with a straight face, "I need to visit Gringotts for some house business too. I'm sure Daphne can manage some more time with us."

Daphne readily agreed. When Harry tried to settle the bill, Mr O'Neill refused. Harry asked him, "Mr. O'Neill, this is what you do for a living. You can't do this."

O'Neill smirked, "Mr. Peverell, I sure can do this. If you insist on paying, I will simple donate the money you are trying to give me."

Harry paid him nonetheless. From there they flooed to The Leaky Cauldron. Exiting the inn, they quickly marched to the bank. In the entrance hall, he informed Ironjaw, "I am here to see King Ragnok."

The teller almost jumped off his stool and said, "Follow me Lord Peverell. King Ragnok is eager to meet with you."

Harry followed the goblin to Ragnok's chamber. Susan and Daphne walked to the office of her account manager.


	6. Chapter 6

**Gringotts**

While Harry was on his way to meet Ragnok, Susan went to the Bones Account Manager, Grimjaw. She didn't take long. In mere minutes, she and Daphne were on their way out and back to Hogwarts.

Ironjaw accompanied Harry to Ragnok's chamber. When Harry entered, Ragnok greeted him warmly as a goblin would greet an old friend, "May your enemies bleed under your sword, Lord Peverell."

Harry nodded to him respectfully, "May your gold always flow King Ragnok." He took the seat across the desk from the Goblin King before continuing, "I received your letter the other day. I must say my curiosity was piqued. What do you have for me?"

Ragnok asked him, "What do you know about taking Vassals?"

Harry told him what he had been taught by Rachael, "Vassals are sub-ordinate to a liege lord who is responsible for them. They can demand asylum, protection etc. of him when they need it."

Ragnok thought for a moment before he said, "That's only half of it. Don't you think this should be a two- way thing? Like the vassals would have to give something in return to their liege lord."

Harry nodded, "True. I can ask them to do acts of service, forbid certain actions, but I don't know all of that part."

Ragnok smirked, "As you know, the family magic of the liege lord can help protect the vassal, similarly the liege lord can call upon his vassals to help him boost his magical powers if he needs it. For example, if you are involved in a duel where you are on the brink of exhaustion, you can supplement your power through your vassals who are honour bound to provide it. If they fail or refuse to honour their commitments, mother magic has prescribed very harsh punishments for them."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise as he replayed Ragnok's words in his mind. He said with a tone of amazement in his voice, "Do you mean to say that it's a symbiotic association? Where I help them in return for them helping me?"

The Goblin King nodded, "That's exactly what I mean. I know that you are in the middle of a war. You will need to fight. Even though you are immensely powerful, you are only one person. It wouldn't hurt you to have some back-up ready. Would it?"

Harry nodded, "So, what're you proposing?"

Ragnok's eyes had the gleam which one gets when something desirable is about to fall into his lap, "Lord Peverell, as I wrote in the letter, Albus Dumbledore had asked me the price for the inheritance ritual to be conducted for the muggle-born students. From what I can tell, there are about 200 muggle-born students at the castle right now. Taking 100 Galleons per student, the price would be pretty steep for an average wizard. There are many muggle-born outside Hogwarts who don't have children in the school at the moment. They may have been descended from some old families. I want you to take in as many vassals as you can. It may make the difference between winning and losing."

Harry asked him, "I don't suppose that you're telling me this out of the goodness of your heart. What do you get out of it? Is there a catch?"

Ragnok smirked, "Nothing gets past you does it? With the muggle-born getting their heritage back, many vaults which have been sealed for years will be active again. Gold that has been lying around in those vaults can be of use again. Not to mention, it would give a boost to the economy of the wizarding world. So do you agree?"

Harry took his time answering, "You can conduct their tests and give them their inheritances. Why do you need my help with it?"

Ragnok sighed deeply, then with the patient air of a long suffering grade two teacher explaining to a very backward child that two plus two equals four, he explained, "In addition to the reasons I already gave, there are three more. Firstly the laws state that we can't do this ritual for any muggleborn unless they're sponsored by one of the houses. Secondly, this ritual will cost a lot of gold and there aren't many families out there who can afford it. Thirdly you are an ally of Gringotts so we will look out for your interests as you would look after ours."

Harry nodded, "Very well, King Ragnok. I agree to sponsor any muggle born who wants the test and to pay the costs. For your part, every person who wants this test must first understand what being a vassal means. You can write to Professor Dumbledore to tell him to announce the ritual and the conditions."

Harry was about to leave when he remembered something, "King Ragnok, there is something I have been meaning to ask you."

Ragnok nodded, "Please go ahead."

"If someone's magical ancestors lived in another country but their ancestors moved here, how would they get their inheritances?"

The goblin smirked, "Since the parchment tells us about their ancestry, we can have those results run by our branches in other countries to find their ancestry and assets. Is that sufficient?"

Harry nodded and took his leave of the Goblin King.

That was today's business done. Tomorrow Viktor Krum was scheduled to arrive. Harry would be there to greet him and take him on a tour of the Puddlemere Stadium where he had been invited by the manager.

He apparated to the Cottage on the Hill where Sirius was staying with Emmeline after he had brought her there from the hospital. The healers wanted her to take a couple more days of bed rest before she got back to the business of being an Auror. Sirius had taken it upon himself to ensure this.

**Ministry of Magic**

Alastor Moody was in a war conference with Minister Longbottom, Alice Longbottom, Rufus Scrimgeour, and Bartley Higgins who was in for Sirius Black who was on leave to take care of Emmeline. To everyone's surprise Arthur Weasley was there too.

Moody was asking, "Do any of you have any idea as to how we can ensure the safety of the muggle-born? The fellytone idea was good but we need something more. I mean it takes about 5 minutes for us to send a team when an attack is happening. That's when we already know where we're going. In the cases where we have to make a portkey before we go, it takes even longer. With a couple of killing curses, a lot can happen in just a few minutes. They aren't starting with Killing Curses yet but that can change anytime. When it does, Nothing will stop them from killing a lot more people."

Rufus said, "Couldn't we place guards near their residences."

Moody looked at him skeptically, "You know that we're already stretched thin as it is. We're talking about a hundred or more residences here, Rufus. We just don't have enough people. Besides, when the blighters do show up, they typically do so in groups. I'm not sending people out there to die."

Bartley said, "We can use the same system as we use for under-age witches and wizards. I mean the tracers which we use can detect if magic is cast, right? Since the students are at the school it stands to reason that 9 times out of 10, it'll be a death-eater attack. We can keep the tracers active at all times, keep an eye on the map which locates where magic has been used. A small team of ministry employees can be put together for this task. One group can keep an eye on the map while another would make portkeys to the location and hand them over to the Aurors. We could put them right on the Auror floor."

Frank nodded, "That sounds like a good suggestion. Let's give everyone a chance to speak before we decide on anything."

Alice spoke, "Can't we raise wards around their property or something?"

Alastor shook his head, "That's a problem for three reasons. First, they're muggles. They don't build on ley-lines. Without someone to constantly refresh the wards, they would quickly run out of power. Second, as I said before, we're talking about more than a hundred households here. We don't have that many ward masters. And the third reason is that muggles depend on eklec.. elekritity for many of their needs. Wards would stop that from working."

Arthur asked, "Why can't we remove them to safe-houses?"

Alastor asked, "How many safe houses do you have, Arthur? There could be nearly a thousand of 'em. Then there's the disruption to their day-to-day lives."

Frank asked him, "Alastor as I understand it, many of those students come from rich families. As such, their parents can afford private security for their residences. Besides muggle technology would be foreign to the death eaters. They can, maybe save themselves with the help of those firelegs or whatever they're called."

Arthur interceded, "They're called firearms. They aren't so common, especially among the muggles of Britain. Mr. Creevey only had one because he was retired from military and he has a farm. The muggle government takes a dim view of most muggles even being in possession of the things."

Frank nodded, "So as Bartley suggested, we can employ a team of wizards to keep an eye on the map and pass information of every instance where they detect magic is being used at a muggle-born residence. Any instance shouldn't be overlooked no matter how big or small. As soon as we receive a report, we will dispatch teams to the location. Further we will try to find out who among the muggle-born can care for themselves so we don't have to try to protect them. Those which are totally helpless can be moved into the safe-houses. We can ask the Chief Warlock if his order can find safe-houses. Is that agreed?"

They all agreed and the meeting was dismissed. There wasn't much more they could do to protect the muggle-born with all the conditions attached so they had decided that they would have to make do with what they had.

**Cottage on the Hill**

You didn't get to be an Auror by being the type of person who likes sitting around and Emmeline was getting restless. Since she had been discharged from the hospital, Sirius had been fussing over her. He wouldn't even allow her to leave her bed. It was a loving gesture but she couldn't just lay there all day. Sirius had gone out to run some errand this evening. She got out of bed to come and sit at the table. She was also thinking about their impending marriage. What they had to decide upon was the date of the wedding. Sirius didn't want to wait too long and Remus was of the same opinion to marry as soon as they could.

They however had decided that they wouldn't be fixing a date for marriage before they talked to Harry. They wanted the boy to be there for their weddings because he was dear to all of them in addition to being the Lord of the family. Remus's father had been a pure-blood but nobody had heard from Lyall Lupin for a long time. Nobody even knew if he was still alive. Emmeline had her father, Mr. Vance who had told her that she was free to marry whomever she wanted to and he wouldn't assert his will over her. "I'll be there to give away the bride", were his exact words. Andromeda, by reason of being Regent of House Black and the mother of one of the brides, had invited Mr. Vance to the Black Manor for the next day. Then they would decide upon other matters and make the arrangements.

Suddenly, Harry appeared out of the air soundlessly before Emmeline and said, "Boo."

She was so edgy that before she could think, she had shot a stinger which hit the boy on his hind-quarters and made him yelp. He said indignantly, "What was that for?"

She grinned, "That was your punishment for being a bad boy."

Sirius chose that moment to come back. He saw Harry at the table and exclaimed, "I thought you would be at the castle, pup."

Harry grinned, "You would hope so. Wouldn't you?"

"Oh yes. He has been trying to dissuade me whenever I raise the topic of marriage", said Andromeda who followed him in.

"Auntie", he said joyfully before he hugged her tightly, "What are you doing here?"

She informed him, "You should know that just after you left St. Mungo's the other day, Sirius decided to dispense with all the pomp and grandeur and just propose to Emmeline. I've been trying to persuade them to marry sooner rather than later. Bill Weasley is slated to marry the day before Beltane. It would be the perfect time for a magical union. I've been trying to persuade them to marry on Beltane. I have heard that you suggested that Remus and Sirius could have a double wedding. I like that idea too."

Harry grinned while rubbing his hands in anticipation, "So why not have the double wedding for Sirius and Remus on Beltane?"

She nodded, "That's what I thought too. Since it is Beltane, you lot would have holidays too so everyone can attend."

Harry nodded, "Great! With that decided, we can start on the arrangements. I will spare no expense. Everybody who is anybody will attend. It should be a marriage as befits a Black."

She chuckled, "Your enthusiasm is contagious, Harry. Alright tomorrow, Mr. Vance is coming. We will sit together and work out the details."

Harry asked her, "Aunt Andromeda, will it be a bonding ceremony as per the old customs or a marriage as modern days?"

She said, "As I remember, the House of Black and House of Potter both preferred the bonding ceremony which suits us better than a modern marriage ceremony. Being unified with mother magic as witness is the best thing that can happen."

He nodded, "So where do such unions take place?"

She thought for a minute before she said, "For all the old families, they generally had a place sometimes in their manor or a place which is steeped in magic. The Blacks always had their marriages in the copse of trees on the grounds of the manor. The Potters had it on the grounds of their manor."

He nodded, "Alright, Aunt Andromeda. To you I entrust the duty to look after the preparations for their marriages. I'll write a letter to Ripfang to give you as much gold is required and any other resources that you may want. Both of the marriages will take place on the grounds of the Black Manor unless Uncle Ted has some place else in mind."

She shook her head, "No Ted will have no problem with the marriages taking place at the grounds of Black Manor."

He remembered something, "And Aunt, if you want, you are free to go to any of the vaults of House Black and take anything you fancy. This should be a marriage worth remembering."

**Unknown Castle**

Bellatrix was trying to cast some of her choicest spells but it just didn't happen. She had been fitted with a new wand when she was rescued from the prison because the Ministry had snapped the wands of all the death eaters. The snapped wands were left in the inventory of the prison for the death eaters to see and fume. A taunt to them from the ministry.

She decided that the problem must be that the wand she was using wasn't her best match. Dragon heartstring, iron-wood, 13 ¼ inches, unyielding, should have been a good match for her, but something was wrong. She decided to confront the wand-maker in residence. When she entered the room, he was busy fitting another death eater with a wand.

She glared at the other death eaters in the room, "Leave us."

They all left in haste. The moment the last one left the room, with a few quick gestures of her wand, she slammed and locked the door, then cast silencing wards to be certain that none of their words could be overheard. She turned to the wand-maker, "I have a question for you."

The storm in her eyes, the venom in her voice was enough to make the wand maker shudder. He said meekly, "Yes Madame, how can I serve you?"

She curled her lips at the corners and sneered, "Before we talk further, I want you to take an oath on your magic that you will not ever speak about what we discuss here."

The wand maker looked a little hesitant but took the oath.

She took a deep breath before she started speaking, "This wand that you crafted for me doesn't suit me. It fails to do my bidding. Can you explain that?"

The wand maker took her wand and examined it for a few moments before he spoke, "This wand's allegiance is clearly to you. There should be no difficulty. What kind of spells will it not cast?"

"I learned my family magic when I was little. I know those spells like the back of my hand. I haven't been able to cast a single one of them with this wand. What's more is that some of the family magic which I got from the Lestrange's. I can't cast those spells either."

The wand-maker asked her, "Do you have trouble using this wand for other spells too, Madame?"

She replied, "Other than family magic, this wand is as good as my old wand for anything that I want to do."

The wand maker said with a little meekness in his voice, "Is it possible that you have been ousted from your family Madame and your marriage with Signore Lestrange was dissolved? If that is the case, it would explain why you can't use those spells."

She protested, "You are lying, you worthless fool. I am a…" She couldn't say she was a Black as if she was choking on something.

She glared at the wand-maker, "A word of our conversation goes out and you will die."

With that she stormed out of the chamber to go and find Lucius Malfoy. If it turned out that the wand-maker was right then there would be a lot of pain in store for the Malfoy Lord for having failed to tell her. She however couldn't say anything about it to others because that would make them think that she had lost her prowess. Her reputation would be so tarnished that it couldn't be salvaged.

* * *

Lucius Malfoy was in his chamber. He was pondering about what his life had been since the Dark Lord rose again. When the Dark Lord was resurrected, he thought that perhaps he would be able to indulge in his practices as he had during the first war. He thought to get the run of wizarding Britain as soon as the Dark Lord had over turned the government. He had done everything as the Dark Lord desired and even squandered half of his family wealth for him. His fortunes turned for the worse when Cornelius Fudge was ousted from the position of Minister.

Lucius hadn't even thought that the light side could actually fight back but they did and they bloodied the Dark Lord's nose with the first strike. The light faction was unified by one and even the neutral faction followed suit. He had failed to get wind of what had been coming. When out of nowhere, Potter came out to claim the Lordship of four houses of the Wizengamot, Lucius knew that the Dark Faction was about to have their collective butt handed to them on a big silver platter. The Longbottoms' recuperation and Frank Longbottom's ascent to the position of Minister of Magic was another blow.

Unlike Fudge, Longbottom understood what was at stake. He wasn't influenced by Lucius's ministrations either. He danced to Light's tune from the start. He did whatever they wanted him to do. He, unlike Fudge, seemed to believe Potter's word from the start that the Dark Lord was back from the dead. Under the guise of long overdue changes; they had started their war preparations. Since Longbottom became Minister, he hadn't allowed Lucius to be in the ministry fishing for information if he could avoid it. Except for the sessions of the Wizengamot, he had refused to meet with Lucius for any reason.

He should have seen the warning signs when Bones presented the motion for recruiting Aurors by lowering the requisite qualifications but they failed to see it. Then they brought Alastor Moody out of retirement to take over for Rufus Scrimgeour and they were still none the wiser. Moody was easily the best Auror by reason of having filled half the cells in Azkaban with the Dark Lord's followers. He had pursued his vendetta against them with renewed fervour. The change of the hierarchical system in the Ministry should have been a danger sign to them but they chose not to see it. All the purebloods sympathetic to the cause had been sidelined under the new regime and their interference was kept to a minimum.

Then there was the battle of the Ministry Atrium where they simply walked into a trap. If the Dark Lord hadn't the foresight to take so many followers with him, Lucius would have died that day. Last, there was the boy who was the lynchpin to the entire thing. Lucius had thought he was a mediocre boy when he had heard about him from Draco. On that day in the graveyard, when he saw the boy facing the Dark Lord; he had a premonition that if this boy lived, he would be the bane of death eaters. In the duel in the atrium, he had watched the boy fight with the Dark Lord. He had made the Dark Lord look like a puny kid. The Dark Lord's extensive repertoire of spells looked like naught when he faced the boy. He didn't just beat the dark lord, he had toyed with him. Lucius had never seen the Dark Lord look so helpless. When they had a battle of minds, the boy had caused so much damage to the Dark Lord that he couldn't wake up for 9 days! Merlin knows what would have happened if Lucius had faced him.

"Lucius, I want a word", growled Bellatrix who had just stormed in his chamber.

She broke Lucius's reverie as he was sitting on his bed in his chamber. Bellatrix was getting on his nerves but he couldn't do anything to her. She was a favourite one of the Dark Lord and formidable with a wand. Lucius wouldn't have tried to match with her. He would have tried to leave the Dark Lord's service if he thought he could. But the Dark Lord didn't take kindly to traitors. They typically ended up being hunted down and killed. He was also a wanted man in the Wizarding world with a bounty on his head. The ministry had posted a bounty of 500G for his head. He knew that Bounty Hunters would be searching for him. He had never learned to live like a muggle so he couldn't go out in the muggle world either. His only recourse was to live with the Dark Lord and serve him with all his devotion and hope that he would emerge victorious in the end.

He noticed the angry looking witch standing before him and drawled, "Of course Bella. What do you want?"

She raised a privacy ward and asked him, "Tell me my full name, Lucius."

Lucius actually smirked, "Bellatrix Nameless. That's what you are known as now."

She barked, "I am a B…" Again she choked when she tried to say what used to be her family name.

Lucius smirked, "Has no one told you yet that Harold Peverell-Potter-Black-Rosier who is the new lord of House Black banished you from the family and dissolved your marriage with Rudolphus? Have you been performing your duties as a wife towards Rudolphus since you escaped from prison without knowing that he isn't your husband anymore?"

She screeched, "How can he do this? He cannot both throw me out of his family and dissolve my marriage! He can't! He can't! He can't!"

She looked like she would like nothing more than to kill Lucius, "Why didn't you tell me? When did it happen? How can a half blood be a Lord of Black?"

Lucius took great relish in telling her, "This summer, Harold Peverell took up the Lordship of House Black as the adopted son of Sirius Black. The first thing he did was to prune his family tree. Also, he isn't a half-blood because his mother, Lily Potter who really was a pureblood was a daughter of Vincent Rosier and Emilia Weber of House of Weber of Germany. He dissolved your marriage then kicked you out."

She pulled out her wand and pointed it at Lucius, "Now swear an oath on your magic that you will not utter a word of what we have talked about to anyone or I will simply kill you and tell the Dark Lord that you were trying to betray him so I killed you."

Lucius perhaps understood what had got her worked up and said smugly, "So you can't use most of your curses anymore because that was family magic, eh? Now imagine how poor Bella would fare before the Dark lord who would banish her from his presence."

This was sufficient to get Bellatrix's dander up. She levelled her wand at him and intoned, "Crucio."

Lucius started withering under her curse. He bent double with pain while Bella cackled like mad. She kept it up for about 2 minutes before she lifted the spell. She said, "I haven't lost my cruelty Lucius. I can still make you wither before my might any day. Now are you taking that oath or do you want more?"

Lucius knew this mad witch could do as she said. He pulled out his wand and grasped it in both of his hands, "I, Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, do hereby swear on my magic that I will never disclose a word of what has passed between me and Bellatrix nameless in this chamber to anyone. If I break my vow, may mother magic smite me. SO I say so mote it be."

As he finished taking the vow, Bellatrix levelled her wand at him again and shrieked, "Crucio."

**Black Manor**

Mr. Vance arrived at Black Manor by the portkey which Sirius had sent him. They had decided not to share the floo address too much since if Merlin forbid, someone unwanted knew of it, they could get inside Black Manor. That would jeopardize their security.

When he arrived in the floo chamber, Kreacher was there wearing the livery of House Black. He welcomed him, "Kreacher welcomes Mr. Vance. My master is waiting for you."

Mr. Vance followed the ancient looking elf to the main manor house where Sirius received him at the front door with a firm handshake. The older man embraced Sirius warmly, "Sirius Black, how are you?"

"I'm fine, Mr. Vance. Thank you for asking."

Harry was in the Lord's study in the manor where Sirius was leading him. He hadn't liked the idea and he had told Andromeda so. Andromeda had advised him that it was a power show which they were expected to put on. Failure to do so would make him feel like Harry was a novou in these matters which he clearly wasn't. He had to abide by her words at last.

When Mr. Vance was at his office door, Kreacher announced in his loud bullfrog voice, "Mr. Vance to see you, Lord Black."

Harry stood from his chair as Mr. Vance entered. The older man bowed very low to Harry for House Vance was a minor house with the designation of Ancient House while Harry himself was head of an Ancient and Reverent House. In return of his low bow, Harry returned a curt nod. This was noticed by Mr. Vance but he chose not to comment upon it. He had expected this sort of thing with the House of Black.

Harry waited for the man to extend his hand first because Rachael had taught him that the one who was less in stature always extended his hand for shaking and not vice versa. When Mr. Vance extended his hand, Harry shook it warmly, "It is an honour to host you under my roof, Mr. Vance. Welcome to Black Manor."

Mr. Vance took the offered seat. Harry asked him, "Mr. Vance, I would prefer that the present negotiations take place in a more informal setting however I would like to hear your opinion regarding this."

Mr. Vance knew of this wordplay. While Harry was asking his opinion, he was indirectly asking him to agree with his words. He nodded, "I am also of the same opinion, Lord Black."

Harry snapped his fingers and Kreacher popped in. Harry directed him, "Kreacher, please bring some refreshments to the sitting room. Also ask Lady Regent Black and Mr. Tonks to join us there, please."

As Kreacher popped away, Mr. Vance asked him, "Do you usually request your house elf to do his chores that way, Lord Black?"

Harry nodded, "They have emotions and feelings like we do, Mr. Vance. Giving them a little respect for all they do for us and treating them as beings rather than beasts can make all the difference. It makes them all the more loyal to us. In my view, a little respect for undying loyalty isn't a bad bargain. And please call me Harry."

Mr. Vance chuckled, "Call me Stephen then. I must say I was curious about you and you are as interesting as others claim you are."

When they reached the meeting room, Winky had laid some informal setting to the room. Refreshments had been laid out on a low table beside a low sofa.

Andromeda joined them about 5 minutes later. As was tradition, she bowed a little low while raising her robes a little to show her ankles, "You called, my lord?"

Harry scowled, "You know how much I dislike that, Aunt Andromeda. You are my family. You should order me around rather than doing this."

She chuckled, "Tradition, Harry. Now what do you require of me?"

Harry turned to Mr. Vance, "Stephen, I must accept that I'm not experienced at these sorts of things so Aunt Andromeda will be handling these negotiations with you. This isn't done to slight you or to show any disrespect to you."

Mr. Vance waved him off, "Not at all, Harry. I understand it and I agree to it. Of course I know Andromeda and Edward."

The talks lasted about three hours including a sumptuous lunch. Beltane was agreed upon as the date for their marriage and Teddy dutifully took the notes while his wife worked the meeting as per her own ministrations.

Harry vehemently protested that they didn't need any money at all while Mr. Vance forced it from his end. He said that it was tradition for the father of the bride to pay for the wedding expenses while Harry argued back that since it was a double wedding and he had his own agenda for the occasion that he would not allow Mr. Vance to bear more than one quarter of the total costs. When they agreed on that part, the discussion continued on into dowry. At last they had decided that he would give the customary dowry and property. Mr. Vance insisted that his Emmeline would get a proper dowry from him. Harry insisted that since he had more houses than he had any use for, that they would receive a house from him. They would be doing him a favour because one less house would be one less headache for him. Mr. Vance was not a very wealthy man, but he had done well for himself and he was able to provide a good start in life for his daughter. With the general terms agreed, Harry took his leave. He left it up to his very shrewd and admittedly somewhat scary aunt to work out the details.

Since it was about time for Harry to go and receive Viktor Krum at the portkey station, he apparated to the portkey station located at the muggle Airport.

**The Portkey Station**

Wizarding Britain had a portkey station set up for International portkeys in a part of the muggle Airport. A desk manned by a few wizards did the work of security and customs.

This day, there was a clamor among those witches and wizards to shake hands with the boy-who-lived who had come to receive someone from an International Portkey. Harry knew that he would be mobbed as soon as he went out yet he was here because he was to personally welcome his guest.

He shook hands with some, patted the backs of a few others. He patiently worked on the masses until he heard a shriek, "Its VIKTOR KRUM!" At that moment, all of the attention was shifted from him to the new comer. Viktor found himself to be helpless and uncomfortable with all the people around him who wanted to touch him, to ask for his autograph or to just see that he was real.

Harry chuckled as he stood aside to watch Krum trying to extricate himself from the masses and failing miserably. He let it go on for about 5 minutes before he decided that it was enough. With a bang from his wand, he attracted the crowd's attention to himself, "Mr. Krum has had a long journey. He would prefer to get some rest. I hope that you all would understand and give him the space he deserves. I am sure you will all get a time in the future to see him and even get some pictures with him since he is going to stay here for some time."

He walked to Krum who shared a warm one-handed embrace with him whispering, "About damn time you got here, Potter. I was getting mobbed."

Harry chuckled, "They adore you Viktor. They wouldn't do any such thing."

Harry saw the flash of a camera in the crowd. He decided that he had enough for the day.

Catching Viktor's arm, he disapparated to Hogsmeade. There, a cottage had been set aside for the Quidditch star.

The cottage was fairly bare with just a few basic furnishings. When they apparated in, Krum asked in amazement, "Am I to live here with nothing? I mean a man has some requirements."

Harry chuckled, "Hold your horses, Viktor.". He raised his voice and called, "Matty!"

An elf appeared who was about 3 feet tall, had the trademark bat-like ears, snout like nose and red tennis ball sized eyes. She said in a tiny voice, "What can Matty do for you, Lord Black?"

Harry addressed her, "Matty, Mr. Krum is going to live here in this cottage from now. You will serve him as your master until I say otherwise. You are to fulfil all his wishes starting with furnishing this house according to his wishes. You will serve him with as much dedication as you have served the House of Black."

The elf bowed, "Yes Master." She turned to Krum, "What are my orders, master?"

Harry turned to Krum, "Settle in Viktor. We will meet tomorrow. This place contains some very strong war wards. The ward book is on the mantle. If you want to avoid any potentially gruesome accidents, I advise you to study it first and set the wards. It wouldn't do to be lax in the present environment. Also a word of caution, we are very near Hogwarts so if I were you, I wouldn't go outside without taking some precautions unless you like dealing with screaming fans."

Krum chuckled at that.

**GUILD HEADQUARTERS, GERMANY**

Voldemort was getting frustrated. He had been fighting for every step that he took in the fort which served as Headquarters to the guild since he had entered. Still he was nowhere in sight of his target. He was sure that he had killed at least 60 of them but their numbers didn't seem to abate. He had been casting relentlessly. He had lost count of how many killing curses he had used yet he was nowhere near conquering them.

He had entered the Fort in a very unusual way. Others may have expected him to blast his way in or mount an outright attack, he had chosen a subtler way and thought it would have surprised them. He had flown directly to the guild headquarters and had tried to enter through a vent on the roof. The vent however was guarded by some very nasty jinxes. They wouldn't have killed Voldemort but severely inconvenienced him so he had to land on the roof. As soon as he landed on the roof, he had tripped the ward scheme covering the entire roof and it seemed to have exploded beneath his feet. If Voldemort didn't know how to fly, his body would have been blasted into smithereens. That would have been a set back from which he would have taken a great deal of effort to recover from if he could do it at all.

After he was sure that the ward scheme had destroyed itself, he set foot on the roof again. Since then he had been fighting. He took a hit as he landed when a colourless spell hit him but it seemed to not to be affecting him. Since then he had been killing them one by one but it seemed that they had an infinite number of soldiers to send against him.

He hadn't taken a lesson from his duel with the brat a month ago. He was still relying on his favourite Killing Curses. He remembered that at any time there were 160 guards in the fort. As per his reckoning, he had killed at least 60 of them already but their numbers didn't abate. Why were they all wearing the same dress? They even looked the same!

He turned on his heels to blast away one of those who had crept up behind him. This one too looked exactly like the others who had been attacking him since he started fighting them. Did they have the same eyes too? No that couldn't be coincidence. It was like all of them had taken polyjuice potion to turn into the same guy. Now they were all attacking him one by one. He also realized that his magical reserves were getting low yet there was no end in sight. Where had the damned illusionist Weldhem Meyer found so many...? He couldn't complete his own line of thought as another dreadful thought occurred to him.

He remembered that Weldhem Meyer was an illusionist. He was so good that his illusions could force anyone to do his bidding. Now he was heading the guild. Maybe Voldemort hadn't been really fighting anything but illusions? He suddenly remembered that when the blasting ward went off, he had felt a spell hit him. He had dismissed it as a trick of the light. What if Meyer had cast such a spell on him at that moment making him see these illusions? This also explained the uncanny similarities between his assailants.

He decided to take a chance and not attack the next person who was going to attack him. He lowered his wand and let his opponent run at him with his wand raised. True to his thoughts, his assailant passed through him as if he was made of air. Using all his power he cast a finite and presto! He was still standing on the roof without all the dead bodies that he was seeing just a moment ago. With just one spell, Meyer had made him exhaust himself and Voldemort was still where he had started.

Raising his wand, he carefully walked down towards the lower floors of the structure. Despite all his precautions, he was caught in the next trap. The stairs were trick stairs. As he placed his foot on the first step, the stair vanished and his foot was caught in it. Bloody tricks! He blasted the stair to release his leg and decided to fly down.

He drifted downwards without any trouble whatsoever. On the second floor, he ran into the regiment of guards. There were at least 40 of them. Without giving him a chance to cast, they started casting at him. Unlike him, they didn't cast Killing Curses at him but entrails expelling curse, bone liquefying curse, bone shattering curses, black lung curses etc.

He landed quickly and raised a mage shield. To his relief, these weren't very powerful wizards so his shield would last longer. He kept at defending himself for a few minutes before he decided to go on the offensive. His duel with the brat had made him skeptical and doubt his own strength. These couldn't hold a candle to him. Dropping his shield, he turned on his heels to apparate behind them. With a wave of his wand accompanied with a roaring 'Fiendfyre' his opponents were running for cover. Tragically only a few were able to apparate out before he burned at least half of them to cinders. He decided to liberally give a dose of his brutality to those who had provoked his ire. He had thought that perhaps they would be amicable and agree to serve him. But if they were bent on fighting him then so be it.

He started spreading his fire around, burning down everything that he could see in his sight when a team of wizards appeared near him.

Meyer was at the head of them. He shouted, "Stop it Voldemort. You pass."

Voldemort ended the fire and levelled his wand at Meyer, "Since I have vanquished you, you should grovel before me and kiss the hem of my robes."

The wizard sneered, "Do not delude yourself that you have vanquished us, Voldemort. You have merely proven that you are worthy of our aid. Tell me what you want of us and go your way."

Voldemort laughed evilly, "You shall all serve me as I take my rightful place in Wizarding Britain."

Meyer shook his head, "We will lease 100 of our mercenaries to you. That's all. If we send any more, the ICW may learn of it and send the war wizard contingent to Wizarding Britain to oppose you. You will treat my men as the highly skilled professionals that they are. You will not abuse them, force them to swear magical oaths to you or brand them like cattle as you do with your own followers. When you emerge victorious in Wizarding Britain, you will, in return, assist us to overthrow the ICW. Are we agreed?"

Voldemort would promise them anything they wanted as long as they gave him the 100 men he wanted from them. Perhaps it was better not to risk attracting the attention of the ICW for now. Later he could butcher them for treating him as if he were a common wizard. He drawled, "Of course Meyer. I agree to your terms. Now tell me where is Master Abbadon?"

**Piddle Town, Dorset **

The headquarters of Puddlemere United was situated somewhere along the Piddle River in Dorset. The club house and stadium dated back about five centuries. The original structures that were built in 1163 when the team was founded had been destroyed by fire when an oil burning lamp had fallen from a crumbling mounting. The burning oil had lit up the old structure like a tinder-box. By the time anyone noticed what was going on, the entire structure was engulfed. The only things that survived the inferno were the goblin wrought silver championship trophies.

The new building was a mansion type structure. Just inside the main entrance was an open reception area. The main floor also contained the dining hall, the ball room, the game room, the conservatory, the infirmary, the kitchens and the servant's quarters. Quarters for the team members, the coaches, medical staff and the manager were all upstairs. The basement contained a small indoor pool, lockers, showers and state of the art muggle exercise equipment. The stadium appeared to be an open air Quidditch pitch with seating capacity for about 20 thousand fans. Besides the open area for the pitch with its three golden 50 foot high hoops at each end, there was a very ordinary four lane track just in front of the first row of seats. What was not obvious was the elaborate scheme of wards and charms that kept the weather out of the stadium, watered the grass, improved acoustics and protected players from serious injury if they happened to come into contact with the ground at high speed. Taken together, it was more effective than any muggle engineered retractable roof.

They also prided themselves for providing Firebolt brooms to all players who joined their ranks. It was one of the chief reasons for the team's prowess on the field. Also this team bragged of fans in the shape of Albus Dumbledore among countless others.

The Manager of Puddlemere United, Jeremiah Wright was excited today. Of course he had been on cloud nine since he learned that one of the owners of the team with majority shares was none other than the boy-who-lived. His excitement had doubled in the last few months since Lord Peverell's steward Remus Lupin had sent a letter asking if Puddlemere United could accommodate Viktor Krum as one of their seekers. That was laughable because Mr. Krum was known to be one of the best seekers in the world. To have him as one of the starting seekers would shoot the team's popularity through the roof.

Harold Peverell had made arrangements for his stay so Krum didn't have to stay in the Team clubhouse. Jeremiah was paying him fifty thousand Galleons per season more than the last opening seeker. Today, Harold Peverell was supposed to be bringing Viktor Krum for the signing up and a tour of the stadium, something that Jeremiah could use to boost the popularity of his already popular team. He already had arranged for a press conference after the signing though the signing would depend on Krum's satisfaction.

Jeremiah had been serving Puddlemere for two decades now. He had decided to be in office for the next two years before he retired in favour of Phillbert Deverill. He had been the new assistant manager for the last 3 years now. Jeremiah wanted to make his last 2 years a success before he retired. Krum's joining was going to be the biggest thing to happen in his 2 decade long career.

At the appointed hour at eleven o'clock, Harold Peverell and Viktor Krum flooed into the headquarters of the team.

Jeremiah warmly shook hands with Krum saying, "Welcome Viktor. We are honored to have you here playing for our team."

Harry stood at his side, smirking and gave a look to Krum which said, "Told you so."

After Krum had been introduced to everyone on the support staff, it was time for the tour. A lot depended on the tour which they were going to take. Krum would sign if he saw that everything was to his satisfaction.

The first place was the reception where a pretty witch was sitting behind the counter. Harry could see that she was blushing in the presence of Krum. She had hastily put up some make up charms on herself. He mentally snorted thinking what Krum would think of her. Krum, like Harry never really liked the whole fan following thing. Krum was putting up a good show of liking everything.

The reception hall was tastefully decorated. Large, solid sofas were placed in the hall for visitors. The massive reception desk was made of solid Teak wood. The gymnasium was in the basement of the building. Many of the team members were there going through their work outs.

Jeremiah entered the gymnasium and introduced them, "everyone this is Viktor Krum. This is Harold Peverell."

That got their attention. While most of the players mobbed Krum, a shout was heard above all the din, "Harry, is that you?"

A compact well-muscled young man with a broad grin on his face came charging over in the person of Oliver Wood. He greeted Harry with a thump on the shoulder and remarked, "You've bulked up Harry. "

Harry returned the gesture and said, "You're not doing too bad yourself, Oliver. Looks like being a professional Keeper is agreeing with you. Jeremiah is giving Viktor here a tour of the place. They were kind enough to let me tag along."

Jeremiah asked him, "Are you already acquainted with Oliver, Mr. Peverell?"

Oliver chimed in, "Yes sir. He started playing Seeker for the Gryffindor team in my captaincy. He was the youngest seeker in a century. In the three years that I played with him, he never missed catching the Snitch."

Harry grinned, "We beat Slytherin in the opening game this year too. Katy is the captain now. Malfoy is still sulking over the pasting we gave them."

Viktor whispered to Harry, "You forgot to tell me, Harry Potter, that you play Quidditch too and Seeker at that?"

Harry waved him off, "Yes Viktor but I play for the house team, not the national team like you. I didn't think it was worth mentioning."

Jeremiah hadn't heard the little banter. He was saying, "Mr. Peverell's family owns 55% of the total shares of the club. He also volunteered to introduce us to Mr. Krum who I believe would play for our club if talks go well between us."

As the tour continued, Oliver tagged along with them. He kept talking to Harry while Krum paid attention to what Jeremiah was saying. Oliver asked him about everything that had happened since he left Hogwarts. The tour lasted for 2 hours before they arrived at the Managers office. There was a big desk in the middle of the room and an ornate high leather chair behind it. The desk was covered with training modules, parchments and even parts of brooms while the walls were covered with photos of teams, posters of the star players.

After they were given seats in the office, Jeremiah began to introduce the terms of the player's contract to Viktor, "Mr. Krum, our standard contract is an exclusive agreement for a two year term. While you are under contract to our team, you agree to certain conditions. First, you will not play for any other team. There are exceptions to participate as a member of your national team and authorized charity events. Second is medical care. You will submit to all treatments and procedures which are in the interest of keeping you fit and healthy while you are playing for us. During our tour, I noticed that you have some posture issues. Our team will get you straightened out. When you are coming to the end of your contract term, we have an exclusive 60 day option to pick you up for the next year before you can consider any other offers. As a foreign national, our legal people have arranged for your work visa conditional on you signing our contract. Your compensation package includes 250 thousand galleons annually to be paid in two week increments, full access to our training facilities, meals when you eat at the club house, full medical, trainers, a house in Hogsmeade while you are playing for us and a signature series Firebolt broom in the team colours that's yours to keep. In the unlikely event that you should sustain an injury that would prevent you from playing again, you or your next of kin will be compensated to the end of the term of your contract. In such an event, you will remain under contract to the team and we will make every possible effort to restore you to full health. If you do not choose to sign immediately, you have 48 hours to consult with a contract lawyer before this offer is withdrawn. For your reference, our previous Seeker, who has joined another team, had a 200 thousand galleon salary. We recognize you as world-class talent and offer to compensate you accordingly. We hope that you will like it here. Do you have any questions?"

He presented a copy of the contract to Viktor. Viktor perused the document at great length. He asked about a few of the legal phrases in the contract as he went along. When he was satisfied that the terms were all in good faith, he signed.

After they were done, Jeremiah rubbed his hands in anticipation. He said excitedly, "I don't know if you people like this sort of thing. We have to do a press conference and present you as the newest addition to our team."

Harry nodded, "Viktor doesn't really like all the attention, but to play for our team, he'll put up with it. As for me, you'll be better off if I stay out of it."

Jeremiah's expression Looked like someone had just taken his favourite toy from him, "but Mr. Peverell, your presence in the Press Conference will be good for the image of the Club."

Harry shook his head, "If Voldemort ever learns that I have something to do with this club, he'll stop at nothing to destroy everything. No, it would be better if you don't include me in this conference. You can take Viktor to this conference. I'll wait up here."

Jeremiah understood and nodded. They left the manager's office to go back downstairs to the ballroom on the main floor. They returned after an hour to find Harry dozing in his chair.

When they finally left the Puddlemere United Headquarters, Harry failed to see the photographer who clicked their picture together before he disappeared.

* * *

A/N- So someone was going on about the werewolf shot by Mr. Creevey. My theory is that once the bullet entered his head and destroyed his brain, he would remain dead. He is not an inferi but a werewolf.


	7. Chapter 7

**Black Townhouse**

When they returned to Hogsmeade, Harry invited Viktor to a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix to be held at the Black Townhouse that evening. He had asked Dumbledore to arrange for it since it was necessary for their new ally to know what they were up against. When he had invited Krum to Wizarding Britain to play for Puddlemere United, he had told him only the barest details. Now it was time to come clean.

Since he arrived long before other members of the Order, he called Kreacher to bring some refreshments to the meeting room where the Order generally met.

After Kreacher had laid down a sumptuous spread before them, he engaged Viktor in conversation, "Viktor, do you get news of happenings in Wizarding Britain in Bulgaria?"

He nodded, "Yes, our news papers report what they learn from your Daily Prophet. I must say you have been busy fighting this Voldemort. Is he the one who killed Cedric?"

Harry nodded, "Though he didn't do it himself, he ordered it to be done. He's the one responsible for it. Did you get any news of Karkaroff?"

Viktor spat, "That coward ran away as soon as you returned to Hogwarts. Nobody has heard from him since then. Even his mistress had no idea of where he is. She died rather painfully, I am told."

Harry gasped, "Who?"

Viktor said with indifference, "She was a teacher at Durmstrang. People said behind our backs that she was his mistress. Sometime during the summer, some of those mask wearing goons found her and tortured her to give him up. Of course the poor woman did not know anything so she could not tell them. Killed after a gruesome torture which lasted for about 3 hours."

Harry winced, "That's appalling. What is your government doing?"

He said dismissively, "They are ostriches. They know the threat is real but they are just sealing our borders hoping it will not spill over into our country. As if Durmstrang does not have a crop of dark wizards to reap already. They should be fighting here but they're securing themselves hoping they won't be harmed."

Harry nodded, "Fudge was in constant denial about his return too. We had to get him kicked out of office. Since then we've made some progress toward preparing for our war but we still need more wands. I was hoping you could use some of your influence."

Krum said gruffly, "You don't have to ask, Harry Potter. I have a lot of people in my connections who will help. I also talked with Antonia Aleksandrov who is the head of DMLE over there. She agrees with me that the only way to keep ourselves secure is to help the light faction here. Still, the Minister is being a moron. He is working under the delusion that if we stay out of it here, even if you lose to the pretender, he will not bother with our country. She agreed to muster people to help Wizarding Britain in secret. If it is needed, she would not hesitate in kicking our minister out. I think she wants to be the next minister."

Harry chuckled, "A determined minister might be the best thing for us right now, don't you think?"

Krum nodded, "So tell me Harry Potter, how you duelled with him for two hours?"

Harry chuckled, "Now that I think about it, it feels like it happened to someone else. It was tiring. I dropped from exhaustion after he retreated. It feels like a dream now. I'm sorry that I can't tell you in more detail about it right now."

Krum had been looking around the room. He was transfixed by something in the room. He pointed at one of the crests and asked with some anger, "Vot is that doing here?"

Harry was confused until he followed where Krum was pointing. Once he saw the Peverell crest, he recognised what he was saying. He asked Krum, "What's the problem with it, Viktor?"

He said angrily, "That is Grindelwald's sign. What is it doing here?"

Harry sighed. He remembered Harsh telling him about how Grindelwald had perverted the crest of House Peverell and used it as an insignia for his forces. He adopted his best calm demeanour before he started speaking, "I know what you are getting at Viktor but this symbol is the crest of one of my houses, the House of Peverell. This represents the three Deathly Hallows which were gifted to the three brothers by death itself. I don't know if there's any truth to the old legend. It is taught to our children as one of the tales of Beedle the Bard now. Grindelwald too was fascinated with the lore and he took it to use as the sign of his forces. I can see why you would be miffed about it. Trust me this crest belongs to me, not anyone else."

Krum calmed down. He nodded, "What is this order you want to introduce me to?"

Harry gave him a brief history of the Order, what it was supposed to do and how many members there were. While it was going on, Harry felt the wards chime and he rubbed his hands in anticipation, "The order has arrived."

This meeting was not attended by many members but a select few because they wanted to keep his involvement secret from others. The only ones who were in the know were Dumbledore, Sirius, Remus, Amelia, Frank, Nymphadora, Alastor, Arthur, Alice, Emmeline and Kingsley.

When they had all arrived, Dumbledore started to preside over the meeting. He introduced everyone in the meeting to Krum saying, "We have met today to introduce a potential ally to all of you. I trust you all know Mr. Krum of International Quidditch fame? He has just this morning signed up with Puddlemere United and will be playing for them. In addition to that, Mr. Krum wanted to know where we stand before he will commit to our cause." He turned to Krum, "I hope Mr. Peverell has told you everything about the present situation, Mr. Krum?"

Krum nodded, "We have been hearing news over there in Bulgaria too. Our Head of DMLE Madam Antonia Aleksanderov is recruiting people to come to your aide. She believes that unless we tackle this problem together, we cannot hope to contain it within the borders of Wizarding Britain. She has promised that she and all her Aurors will come to help Wizarding Britain when the time comes. She however expects that Wizarding Britain would help us when it is our turn rather than sitting out, hoping to stay out of Harm's way. There is major resentment against Wizarding Britain because they did not officially mobilize to help others during the Grindelwald wars. A few of you participated but officially they were never involved. Most countries think that it is about time that Wizarding Britain was paid back in its own currency."

Frank who had heard every word calmly started speaking when Viktor finished speaking, "Mr. Krum, I am indeed thankful for the offer of help made by Madam Aleksanderov. I agree that Wizarding Britain did not participate officially in the Grindelwald war but my father, Jeremy Longbottom, his ally and sworn brother Charlus Potter and Lord Arcturus Black were some of the warriors who along with their allies helped in the campaign against Grindelwald. We paid the price with blood and many of our allies died and we never received a word of thanks for it but we did not complain. You might also observe that Albus Dumbledore who is present here with us was the one who defeated Grindelwald at that time when everyone had given up hope."

Krum raised his hands in surrender as if pacifying him, "We do understand, General Longbottom. My father is trying to find people to help your cause as we speak. We will stand with you and fall with you."

Dumbledore beamed at him, "I find solace in this news that you bring. Now would you like to officially join the Order?"

Before Krum could speak, Harry intervened, "Viktor has already agreed to join another order, Headmaster. However, he will keep you updated with news as it comes."

Dumbledore nodded, "If that's so then it's entirely his choice, Harry. Now is there anything else you want to tell us about?"

Harry shook his head "No Headmaster. There's nothing at the moment."

When the meeting was adjourned and everyone was gone back to their residences, Harry apparated to Weasley Manor. He had to talk about things with Molly Weasley.

**Unknown Castle**

Bellatrix had called a meeting of the inner circle as soon as she had received a message from her master that told her to arrange transport for 100 wizards to the unknown castle. A large company of wizards such as them was a headache for her. She had called everyone to figure out a way. To her consternation, she had to invite Severus Snape too since out of all of them, he was the only one not being hunted by the Order of the Phoenix and the Dark Lord's spy. He could help them more than anyone else.

When the inner circle met, Severus opened the meeting. He said in his deliberate low tone and irritating drawl, "I remember the Dark lord had said that he would not tolerate any more losses, Bella but you lost us how many? 7 or 8 followers since he embarked on this quest. Is this how you are supposed to be leading us?"

She said scathingly, "At least we got three of them compared to when we only lost followers when the Dark Lord was recuperating. Have you answered to the Dark Lord for that?"

Severus continued in the same slow drawl, "I told him everything, Bella. He made the decisions."

She said hotly, "You manipulated him into believing you, Severus. You deliberately caused the slaughter of so many of the Dark Lord's followers."

Snape raised an eye-brow, "Are you insinuating, Bella, that I managed to hoodwink the greatest wizard in the world into believing a pack of lies?"

Of course it was a question which had no answer. She could not say that he had manipulated the Dark Lord after Severus proclaimed he was the greatest Wizard in the world. Her even insinuating that he manipulated the Dark lord would not bode well for her. After all, her master was supposed to be most powerful. Was he not?

She however was not willing to concede defeat to Severus Snape and rallied, "You gave him flimsy excuses for betraying him, Snape. You made him believe that you are his man but you have been Dumbledore's lapdog all along."

Snape still had not lost his cool, "Bella, do you think he would have let me live if I did not have good reasons for not returning to him sooner? I came back as soon as I could when he regained a body. I gave him my reasons for every question he had for me. I have been loyal to him more than anyone."

She screeched, "I went to Azkaban out of my loyalty for him while you were hiding behind Dumbledore's robes."

Snape bristled a little but covered up his expressions and said coolly, "You did not show your loyalty for him by going to Azkaban but rather your foolishness. If you wanted to demonstrate your loyalty, you would have kept your head down and looked for him quietly with no one being the wiser. Lunacy cannot replace loyalty. Besides what good is your loyalty when compared with the information which I have given him?"

"Stop it you two or I will hex you both into oblivion", snapped Dolohov. "I can't believe that you two are still bickering like school children. The Dark lord left you both in charge. We have called his meeting to further the dreams of our great master, not to bicker among ourselves."

Rookwood added, "I agree with Dolohov. We are doing nothing of what the Dark lord wanted us to do when he left on his conquest. We must put our focus on our mission."

She turned to the assembled men, "The Dark Lord has sent me a message that he has found a hundred men who are mercenaries from Germany. He wants us to find a way to transport them safely here. I cannot make a portkey nor can I guide them here. In fact most of us have a bounty on our heads and we are being hunted. Who should bring them here?"

Lucius said, "Without doubt, this task should fall to Severus. He is the only one of our number who is not being actively hunted by the other side. He can find a way to bring them here."

Severus wanted to refuse but knew he could not. If he did, others would be suspicious. To his woe, he could not tell Dumbledore or the Order about it. Doing so would put the suspicion on Snape instantly. That was something that he wanted to avoid if he was to stay among the death eaters and find their secrets. He was furiously thinking of ways. One came to him even before they had made a decision.

He interrupted their discussion, "Before you people decide to send me, I have something to say. As you know, these wizards are German. They are not marked death eaters nor are they known or hunted in Wizarding Britain. They do mingle among the muggles freely so they know their way around the muggle world. They can take any of those means of transportation to travel to London. From there, they can be brought here by any of you. The magical borders around Wizarding Britain are vast and they have their gaps. I know of at least 6 places from where they can pass undetected by the Ministry. You can also send groups of two or three to find and lead them here. I daresay many of the young followers won't be suspected because they have never been death eaters."

Travers said, "I agree with Severus. This is a sound plan. We won't have to depend entirely on one person."

After that was out of the way, she turned to Rookwood, "Augustus, the Dark Lord wanted us to eliminate the ministry officials. I want you to attack the house of the blood traitor Weasleys first and to burn that place to the ground. After that, go for Amelia Bones and then Sirius Black."

Rookwood nodded, "It won't be too much trouble to destroy the Weasley home. Bones Manor, on the other hand, is a formidable place. It has centuries of wards on it. Even a ward destroyer would not make much headway against it. We will need people in large numbers to destroy it. At the same time, we will need the attention of the ministry diverted to other places when we attack that place. As to the Minister, Green Hues is guarded by some of the nastiest wards that the Unspeakables were able to develop during the last war. We can't get to it. As for Sirius Black, for all we know, he is living under a Fidelius Charm. We can't get to him because we don't know who the secret keeper is to that place. Do any of you by any chance remember the place where the old Townhouse was? I mean the general area?"

Severus answered before anyone else could, "That place is not being used anymore. The mutt left it after the battle of the Ministry Atrium. He is now living somewhere else and the building has been abandoned and put under stasis charms. We should concentrate on other places and plans to attack."

Rudolphus put his two knuts worth in, "We can send out teams to attack Muggles randomly and that will keep the ministry Aurors busy. We raid, throw killing curses around and go away when the ministry forces arrive. This way, they will all be distracted. We can attack our targets. We can also attack the mud-bloods who have stolen our magic."

Severus listened carefully behind the façade of his disdainful sneer. He realised that their plan had a chance of succeeding. If the Aurors were busy at other places, they could not go to help the Ministry officials when they were attacked. He needed to supply that information to someone who could help them. They would need help and loads of it.

The light side needed to up its game now before the Death eaters could catch up to them or that would be a recipe for disaster. The light was already stretched too thin. If pull at any more, they may even be torn apart.

**Weasley Manor**

When Harry arrived at the Manor, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were just sitting down to dinner. As the floo roared, Mr. Weasley was up with his wand pointed toward the floo room. He challenged loudly, "Identify yourself."

Harry said, "Mr. Weasley, it's me, Harry."

Mr. Weasley was not convinced. He asked, "What did I say to Harry Potter when he was boarding the Hogwarts Express at the start of his third year?"

Harry replied, "You asked me to promise you that I would not go looking for Sirius Black who was out to get me."

Mrs. Weasley rushed past her husband and embraced the teen asking him, "Harry! How can you be here? Shouldn't you be at Hogwarts?"

Harry chuckled, "Mrs. Weasley, I am out with leave from the Headmaster. I had some house business which I had to take care of."

She invited him to dinner and he accepted instantly. When they were seated, he asked, "Where's Percy?"

Arthur replied, "He's at the ministry still. Frank likes his work ethic. He says Percy is a huge help in his office. He generally comes home late in the evening and is gone early in the morning."

"And where are Bill and Charlie?"

"They're not here either. Bill lives at the Burrow most of the time. Charlie is living near the Dragon Reserve in Wales. Generally it's just us around the place."

He decided it was time that he came to the point, "Mr. Weasley, were your negotiations with Monsieur Delacour successful?"

Arthur beamed at him, "Yes. Bill is slated to marry Fleur the day before Beltane. Preparations are being made."

Harry asked Mrs. Weasley, "what's your opinion of Fleur, Mrs. Weasley?"

Molly Weasley looked like she had sucked on a lemon. She grunted, "She's fine."

Harry sighed. He knew there was a long chat ahead, "Mrs. Weasley, I know that you don't think that she's a perfect match for Bill but I have seen them together. They are very well matched to each other. I have also seen your disdain towards her because she is a bit different from us however she is a powerful witch who complements Bill nicely. I know sometimes she can't help but make comparisons but there are a few differences between here and there. She likes many things different from our customs and she has been trying to adjust to our customary way of life but it's not easy for her either. I know that you suspect she might have bewitched Bill with her charms but you are totally wrong there. Bill is an exceptionally powerful wizard and her allure has never held sway over him. That is one of the reasons that Fleur finds him attractive. She knows that his regard for her is genuine, not just some effect of her natural charms. A wizard as powerful as him needs a witch like her at his side. Like you and Mr. Weasley complement each other, it is the same with them. She is going to be family in about two months. It will not do to treat her as an outsider."

Molly Weasley had wanted to admonish him for trying to tell her something but she realised that he had a point. Yes, the girl had the allure. She had seen Ronald and Arthur among other wizards, tripping over themselves, trying to impress her and that rankled her something fierce but she had seen Bill being impervious to it. Yes, she complained about a lot of things but they did things differently in France from Wizarding Britain but she was also trying to adapt herself to their lifestyle. More recently, she had stopped demanding that they change to suit her lifestyle. She hadn't wanted to accept it Fleur was the best match for her little boy.

She turned to Harry, "Thank you for saying this, Harry. I realise that I was slightly in the wrong about it. I will see to it that I do not try to repeat it."

Harry nodded, "I will also talk to Ginny about it, Mrs. Weasley."

**Hogwarts**

The topic of discussion these days was the growing camaraderie between the heiress of Greengrass and the Heiress of Bones. Many of the students who had started to know them since the start of the year were surprised with the way they were standing up for each other. For the observant ones, it was clear that they both had been infatuated with the boy-who-lived and could not stand to be near each other. It was only Harry who was the glue that kept them together. However since that Hogsmeade weekend when Harry was supposed to be in London for family business, these two witches had been behaving like they were best friends. This behaviour of theirs had even puzzled Hannah Abbott and Astoria Greengrass who thought they deserved to know what happened between them but no one was telling. The weekend had passed with Bones and Greengrass being very friendly to each other and no one knew the reason why.

It had actually started the day Emmeline was attacked. Harry had given his cloak to Susan to return safely to the Badger's hole. Susan was on her way to the dungeons when she fancied that she heard some voices in the dark. It was a room on the side on the fourth floor which was not generally used. The door was shut but there was no locking charm on it nor was there any anti-eavesdropping spell cast to keep out anyone who might be listening in.

Susan was not one to pry or to spy on others but she knew the present climate was such that caution was better than later regret. Applying some silencing charms to her feet, she stalked silently towards the room. It was then that a better idea occurred to her. She cast a little spell into the room which would tell her what was being said.

It did not take her long to realise that the girls in the room were Tracy Davis and Daphne Greengrass. She knew Tracy was appointed as the new Slytherin Prefect after Pansy had been ousted from the school. She had no idea what Greengrass was up to. Her curiosity was piqued. She listened with bated breath.

Tracy said, "Have you given up entirely, Daph?"

Daphne said, "What do you mean Tracy?"

Tracy scowled, "Don't try to play dumb with me Daph. It won't work on me. You know that I'm talking about Harry."

Susan's heartbeat picked up as she listened intently. Daphne sounded like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders when she said, "I don't know Tracy. He seems to be quite enamoured with Bones and won't return my affections. I guess I was too late in approaching him."

Tracy said with a hint of sympathy in her voice, "Daph, it isn't too late yet. I would that you don't give up. It isn't written in stone that he will end up with Susan at last."

Daphne said, "You know I won't do anything that would make him hate me, Tracy. Besides Bones' feelings towards him are as genuine as mine."

Susan had been listening intently and she realised what they were on about. She knew Daphne was interested in Harry but Harry was not showing any affection towards her. She also realised that Daphne's feelings towards him were genuine and maybe she even loved him. True that Susan had been angry with Daphne at first because it looked like she was scheming to snag Harry from her but there was nothing to it now. She also knew that at some time she would have to make Daphne see reason. There was no time like the present.

She walked into the room and said authoritatively to Tracy, "Davis, please leave me and Greengrass alone for some time. I need to talk to her."

Tracy protested, "What are you doing here, Bones? Shouldn't you be in your dormitory?"

Susan snapped, "The same goes for Daphne. She's breaking curfew too. Leave us be for a few minutes. I promise that I won't hurt your friend. You can collect her from here after an hour."

Tracy looked at Daphne uncertainly. She nodded in answer. Tracy left the room. Susan locked the room behind her and cast a privacy spell around them so no one could hear them.

She smirked, "This will ensure that Davis does not hear what I am about to ask you."

Daphne nodded, "What do you want, Bones?"

Susan said, "First of all, I want you to call me Susan. We've been in the same circle for the last 6 months. I think that it's about time that we called each other by our names. Second I have a question for you."

Daphne nodded, "Ask your question, Susan."

Susan smiled, "So tell me Daphne, what are your feelings towards Harry?"

Daphne did not speak for a few moments before she started speaking, "I guess there's no point in trying to hide it from you since you overheard us. I was smitten with him from second year when I heard that he had slain the monster of Slytherin. I fell in love with him when he stood tall and behaved with honour towards even those who didn't deserve it."

Susan sighed, "I know how he is but for your own peace of mind and mine, I am going to tell you something. You must promise me that you are not going to mention it to anyone else."

Daphne nodded, "What is it?"

Susan took a deep breath before she started speaking, "Can you wait until the weekend? There is something that I should show you first so that you will know that I am being honest with you. Also, I am sorry to you for any slants that I may have committed towards you."

Daphne nodded, "I accept your apology Susan and in return offer mine for any unintended insult which I may have given to you. What is the plan for the weekend?"

Susan grinned, "Well it should be obvious. I want to puzzle everyone and maybe get another best friend at the same time."

Daphne grinned in response, "I like your way of thinking, Susan."

Since then, Daphne and Susan had been amicable towards each other and they behaved like the best of friends. Susan found that Daphne was not as frosty as she showed to most people. Daphne found out that Susan was not the confident smug type of individual she appeared to be either. Their friends were scratching their collective heads over what had caused this change but neither of them was telling. Tracy had grilled Daphne for hours but she did not budge. Even Astoria was not able to get anything out of Daphne.

When they returned from Hogsmeade, Susan asked Daphne to meet her in the Room of Requirement the next night.

When they met in the Room, Susan had asked it to provide a less formal setting. It had made a replica of the sitting room of the manor in Ireland where they had spent their holidays. When Daphne arrived, she raised an eyebrow over the appearance of the room and asked her, "Is this what the sitting room at Bones Manor looks like?"

Susan shook her head, "No, this is the sitting room of a manor where Harry and I spent a part of our winter vacation with others."

With Daphne's curiosity piqued Susan told her everything about their holiday except the fact that he could fly. That was a secret which was not hers to tell. When she was done, Daphne whistled, "That was some holiday."

Susan beamed at her, "yes, it certainly was. We plan to visit again and stay much longer after Voldemort is gone for good."

Daphne then asked the real question that she wanted answered, "What were you saying that day Susan? I trust you were going to tell me something important?"

Susan said, "About the time I was born, my parents made a decision for me which fixed the course of my life for me. It was a decision that I knew nothing about at the time but came to know of it later."

Instead of speaking further she simply handed her a document which she had retrieved from Gringotts during the weekend. Daphne eyed it apprehensively before she took it and started reading. The moment that she realized what she was reading, her face started changing colours. As she read on, her hands were trembling and Susan fancied that she could see tears in her eyes.

When Daphne was done, she asked in a very low voice, "Is this for real?"

Susan said kindly, "yes Daphne. I wouldn't try to trick you. This is real. It was written by our parents when we were less than a year old. It employs all the terms which were standard in those contracts except for the most vulgar ones or those which would have been absurd. The infidelity clause is part of it. I don't know what they were thinking but they agreed to it and I am bound to it, as is Harry."

Daphne sighed, "I realise my entire effort was for naught however I wish you had told me this sooner, Susan. Does Harry know about it?"

Susan nodded, "Yes he knows. He only came to know about it a week before Samhain."

Realisation dawned on Daphne, "That was when Harry went missing for a week! I take it that it was his reaction to this news?"

Susan nodded, "That's right. You know I would have rather had liked a chance to get to know someone before I made these decisions but then maybe I could have done a lot worse. I mean there aren't many blokes out there who would measure up to Harry. It is just that I feel cheated that the usual romance of properly courting is not quite there for us. It all feels a bit forced when we know there's only one way it can go. Having said that, not only is Harry seriously easy on the eyes, he's also as brave, as kind, as smart and as generous as any girl could hope for. Once he got over the initial surprise, he's been the perfect suitor."

Daphne didn't say a word for a while. She was letting it sink in that she had been having empty hopes for herself. Susan could see the changing expressions on Daphne's face. She said kindly, "Daphne, you deserve better than to be chasing someone around who can't return your affection. I'm sure that with your charms and your smarts that you'll snag a guy who's just right for you. If things were different, I would be honoured to have you as a rival. As things are, I hope that you can find it in your heart to be my friend and Harry's friend as well."

**London**

In the early evening, there was the usual line-up outside of the Padella restaurant. The place didn't take reservations, but people who were in the know were willing to line up to partake of their excellent fare. The people in the line were taking in the cool evening air and chatting among themselves when there was a rapid series of curious popping noises around them. The jovial chatting stopped suddenly when they saw that a wild assortment of strange people wearing dresses and silly masks appeared all around them. Each of the strange people appeared to be wielding ornately carved sticks which they had pointed at people in the line-up. They started yelling some nonsense words that sounded something like, "Abra Kadabra!" People started falling as jets of green light from the sticks hit them. When the people in the crowd realized what was happening, all hell broke loose. Some of them bolted, running for their lives. Some of them just stood there and screamed. One of them turned and sprinted at one of the men in funny dress. He got a jet of the deadly green light in his face for his trouble and his lifeless corpse fell at the feet of his murderer. A few of the costumed creeps were uttering different words. Their victims were shrieking in pain or being doubled over in agony or feeling that the blood in their veins was being boiled.

As the Bobbies arrived, one of the attackers pointed his stick at the leading police car. It exploded in flames, killing the two Bobbies inside. The next two police cars met the same fate.

This went on for nearly 5 minutes before there was another series of popping noises, shortly followed by a series of red jets flying from the sticks of the new arrivals at the masked murderers. One of the masked men hollered, "AURORS!" and the reaction was immediate. One of the masked men pointed his wand into the air, shouted something creating a glowing, green skull with a snake protruding from its mouth high overhead. In the next instant, the masked men who were still standing were gone.

The new arrivals were dressed in a similar manner to those who had just vanished. The main difference being that they were not wearing masks and their robes all matched. Some kind of uniform maybe? Judging by the reaction of the people who just left, these guys must have been the authorities. One of them an old, grizzled man, with a face that looked like a battlefield with one bright blue eye and one squinty dark eye, barked out orders, "See to the wounded. I'll call for back-up from St. Mungos."

He surveyed the scene, shaking his head and said, "Merlin's beard, the Obliviators're going to be busy tonight!" He pointed his stick into the air and muttered something and the fireworks overhead vanished. He growled, "The Cretins had the gall to cast that right in front of us. What're they up to?" To the muggles, it was a rather creepy looking firework. The Aurors knew it to be the dark mark, the brand of the death eaters.

When they went through the fallen, there were two of the masked death eaters among them and they were mere children. Once they were taken into custody and their masks removed, they were identified as Theo Nott and Pansy Parkinson.

**Hogwarts**

_"VIKTOR KRUM JOINS PUDDLEMERE UNITED_

_-Jerome Montford_

_Yesterday was a historical day in the history of the British Quidditch league. One of the world's best seekers, Viktor Krum joined the prestigious Puddlemere United Quidditch Club at a starting salary of 250,000 Galleons per season on a two year contract._

_This is the first event of its kind in the history of club Quidditch in Britain and it has turned a lot of heads with the announcement. The ministry sources said that the Department of Sports had no objections to Mr. Krum joining the league since there are no rules prohibiting international players from joining the league. The club has also made it clear that Mr. Krum will be excused from his club duties to play for the Bulgaria national team when the need arises as this is an explicit term of his contract._

_Jeremiah Wright, the manager of the club said, "We are positively elated with Mr. Krum joining our club. He will be our starting seeker in all our games during the period of his contract and we hope that he will be an asset to the team helping us clench the title with his performance."_

_Mr. Krum had the following to say on joining the club, "I am happy to be here playing Club Quidditch for Puddlemere United. They will keep me in practice and I would love to know the people more. I visited Britain once during the Triwizard tournament but I could not see the country. I hope I will get a chance to visit places when I am not playing."_

_This news is sure to soar the Club's popularity to new heights and there will be a guaranteed increase in turn out for fans for the games ahead. We at the Daily Prophet wish good luck to Mr. Krum for the season ahead."_

The newspaper had also published a poster sized photograph which showed Krum and Harry side by side as they walked out of the building of the club. They seemed to be laughing in the picture and the caption read- _Harold Peverell with Viktor Krum after the latter was leaving the club after his signing._

The news which accompanied the poster read:

_"After Mr. Krum had been signed up by Puddlemere United, he was seen leaving the club with none other than the-chosen-one aka the boy-who-lived Harold Peverell himself. What the chosen one was doing there is anybody's guess. The rumours are that Mr. Peverell came along to show support for Mr. Krum who we are told had become friends with the latter during the Triwizard Tournament. A few sources close to the chosen one suggest that he was asking for tips about improving his game from Mr. Krum. It is pertinent to mention here again that Mr. Peverell who plays as seeker for Gryfindor is one of the best seekers to have ever played at Hogwarts. His record shows that he has never lost the snitch but once due to interference from Dementors."_

Susan finished reading the article. She chuckled. Daphne eyed her, "What's so funny Susan?"

Susan showed her the newspaper, "They are insinuating that Harry needs tips to improve his game. Also I think they won't ever realise that Harry hates all the attention being lavished on him. Though I must admit that the poster is gorgeous, isn't it?"

Hannah, who was sitting across from her said, "I can imagine how many witches will have it pinned to the walls in their dorms and fantasize about them, can't you?"

Daphne wrinkled her nose in disgust, "Do you have to be so crass, Abbott? I swear you and Tracy came of the same stock."

Susan chuckled, "Finally someone who agrees with me but I'm with her on this one. It would be a wonder if by lunch we did not see this poster in girls' dorms in every House. I swear I will hex anyone who tries to do it in Hufflepuff though."

Daphne grinned, "It won't happen at least in the 5th year Slytherin Dorms. Lilith is in a serious relationship with Ernie. Tracy is busy with her redhead. I get to see the real thing before me every day and Millicent is busy with Malfoy. She thinks he is the centre of the universe."

They had been at breakfast on Monday morning before classes and they were both waiting for Harry to return to the castle. They had chosen the Hufflepuff table this morning for breakfast. Their friends were sitting around him.

Hermione's attention was on the third page where the rest of them had not reached yet. The headlines screamed:

_"Muggle Massacre in middle of London_

_Last evening, the death eaters raided the heart of London where they attacked unsuspecting muggles outside a diner. There was a substantial queue of patrons waiting to be seated. Before the ministry Aurors could intervene, about 20 muggles including 6 Bobbies (Muggle law enforcement) officers lost their lives in the attack. When the Aurors arrived, they captured two under-age wizards who were recently expelled from Hogwarts for trying to kill one of their year mates at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

_What is of concern is the involvement of under-age wizards and witches in this conflict now. With the Dark not being choosy about its followers, how will we be able to retaliate against them?"_

Hermione was frowning. Ron had one of her hands between his hands. He was consoling her, trying to calm her down. At just that moment, the double doors opened and Harold Peverell walked in. The students spared a moment to see him and then they returned to the serious business of consuming food.

Harry walked up to their friends and sat next to Susan. She opted to sit very close to him almost as if hugging him while Daphne sat on the other side of Susan. The way both witches whispered things to each other was still making Harry nervous. What exactly had happened between the two of them?

Before he could ask anything, he heard someone clearing his throat behind him. He turned to find Severus Snape, pointing towards the door with a subtle movement of his chin. With that he walked out of the hall. Harry got up about a minute after Snape left. He walked out of the Great Hall with Susan in tow. Severus emerged from the shadows of the entrance Hall when they entered. As they entered, he cast a privacy ward on the room and turned to them, "In the last meeting, a decision was made to attack the Bones Manor. They have an elaborate plan to keep the Ministry forces busy at other places while they try to attack and maybe kill Madam Bones. There have also been talks about attacking the Weasley home and Longbottom manor. I have told Dumbledore about it but I thought it would be prudent to let you also know."

With that Snape walked out of the entrance Hall. Harry pulled out his wand and cast the Patronus spell. The Snow Leopard burst out and he said to it, "Go to Bill Weasley. Tell him to evacuate the Burrow and shift to Weasley Manor. The Burrow will be attacked any day now."

The snow leopard sailed out of the room. Harry returned to the Great Hall. When he had taken his place again, he turned to them, "Jeremiah Wright has invited us to Puddlemere United's opening game. It'll be some time during the Easter holiday and he has promised to keep some seats for us. I have accepted his invitation. Also Bill Weasley is going to marry the day before Beltane and our favourite Marauder duo are having a double wedding on Beltane. I must say, I'm excited for these events. They promise to be fun."

As breakfast was winding down, Dumbledore stood up to get everyone's attention, "Attention, students! This announcement is of particular interest to those of you who are muggle-borns. I have recently received communication from the goblins of Gringotts. They have consented to come to Hogwarts and conduct inheritance tests, right here, in this very hall. For those of you who wish to undergo the test, you must first learn what it means to become a vassal of an ancient house. Second, you must find a member of an ancient house to sponsor you. There is also a cost for the test but this can be covered by your sponsor. Professor Lester will be giving a lecture with questions and answers, here, at 3:30 PM today for those of you who are interested in taking the test or sponsoring another student. The goblins will be here in the afternoon next Sunday."

**Germany**

Voldemort had to be content with his progress. True he had failed to add any new death eaters to his ranks but 100 wizards who were trained mercenaries was nothing to sneeze at. He had seen them fight. Not only were they fearless, they were also superior in strength, more disciplined and had greater skill than most of his followers. Meyer had carefully honed the men under his command, making them into superior killing machines by artfully using the knowledge he had gained from Master Abbadon. He had also curtailed his own ambitions and ran an organization together with others making them his equal. Meyer never had been the one to have very high ambitions for himself. He certainly preferred to sit back and watch the carnage rather than to step in and do it himself.

Voldemort had plans for the immediate future that included starting towards Romania while collecting more followers in Austria. Meyer had agreed to hire out his best fighters to him. He was also trying to understand the disposition of ICW's forces and what he would need to overcome them. Unlike Meyer he was not content with his sphere of influence being contained in Wizarding Britain. He wanted to expand into other countries eventually with a large army at his back. For the purpose of that army, it was necessary that Wizarding Britain fell before him.

He would recruit some help in Austria first. Then he would go to Romania to make alliance with the Vampires. The final leg of his journey would be to find Master Abbadon in Greece. His master would have the answer to his woes and may have a solution for him in the current predicament. He would be able to tell him some way that Voldemort would be able to kill the boy in their next clash. Voldemort knew that he could defeat Harold Peverell but he needed some help which he would get from his master.

He had already been briefed by Meyer that the reigning Dark Lord in Austria was not one to co-operate so Voldemort would have to thoroughly defeat him to get the loyalty of his men. That Dark Lord however did not live in some fort but in a forest. The forest was teeming with creatures magical as well as mundane. There were many trees within the forests which were obviously magical and could kill anyone. Somewhere in the middle of the forest was his hideout. There was no saying how many followers he had. Meyer also told him that the wizard was adept at dark Magics and particularly at blood magic. Voldemort would be careful to ensure that he did not let his blood flow or that his enemy got his hands on it. There was only one way to win over him and that was in an open duel. He would kill him and then claim the loyalty of his followers as a right of conquest due to having defeated their master.

Before he met him however, he would have to locate them in the forest and brave his way through all sorts of dangers which were in his path. If he ever succeeded in passing through those dangers untouched, he would get to face his adversary. To Voldemort's astonishment, they did not even know his name but only that he was a force to reckon with.

For now, he was in a hurry to leave because of the message he had received from Meyer.

Meyer had housed him in his mansion and gave him all the comforts that were available to him, treating him as a honoured guest but Meyer, by his actions showed that him under his roof, Voldemort was nothing but a guest.

A day ago, Meyer had come into his chamber and said, "Voldemort, we need to talk now."

Voldemort drawled coldly, "What do you want, Waldhem?"

"The ICW has got news of your presence here and I have heard that they are going to close the borders of the country to try and contain you. Then they will let loose their War Contingent upon us."

He questioned in his cold drawl "Why not fight with them? You have so many followers. Fight with them and annihilate them at once and for all."

Meyer looked at him as if he had grown two heads, "Have I not told you Voldemort that we cannot fight the ICW? Their forces are huge. If they started their crack down on us, we have nowhere to run."

Voldemort asked him indifferently, "What do you want me to do then? I am immortal and they cannot kill me."

Meyer sneered, "I will not have my men die for your delusion, Voldemort. I would rather that you leave Germany as soon as you can. We will fulfil our contract and give you the help we promised but that is the extent of it. As for your immortality, I have heard how a mere boy made you look like a boy when he was fighting with you."

Voldemort sneered, "Do you not value your life, Waldhem? Is it your wish to die?"

Waldhem waved him off, "The wards around this mansion would not let you fire any lethal spells. I also have more than enough followers to see to it that you will not leave here in one piece. Be reasonable. Take our contract and go quickly from this place."

Voldemort had not wanted to fight Waldhem anyway. He was a force to reckon with and when the time came, he would make him bow to his wishes. He would brand him and make him his commander in his war against the ICW. For now, he would be better off if he went on with his campaign and move onwards towards his journey. The more time he lost here, the more time the ministry in Wizarding Britain got to put their affairs in order.

**Behind the Mirror on the Fourth Floor (Headquarters of the Order of the Snow Leopard)**

A few selected members of the Order had come for an emergency meeting. The agenda was the news that Severus Snape had delivered to Harry.

Harry started, "This morning Professor Snape accosted me and informed me that Bellatrix who has been acting in Voldemort's stead has given orders for attacks on the residences of Ministry officials and prominent families, specifically the Burrow, Bones Manor and Green Hues. I have already warned Bill Weasley to evacuate the Burrow and shift to Weasley Manor. I'm open to suggestions about what we can do?"

Hermione asked him, "The ministry can protect them, can't it?"

Harry shook his head, "One part of their plan is to conduct raids, create mayhem and keep the ministry too busy and distracted to deal with anything else. I daresay the ministry would be hard-pressed to respond to every such incident effectively."

Daphne asked, "What can we do while we're here at school?"

Harry shook his head again, "There's a lot we can do, Daph. I think the reason that Professor Snape gave us the information was to let us form some plans of our own in case the Ministry and the Order of the Phoenix were too busy to respond. Does anybody have any ideas?"

Susan said, "We could try House elves."

Hermione looked at her in disgust, "You mean we ask house elves to fight for us? That would be barbaric."

Susan snapped, "No. That's not what I meant, Hermione. I mean House elves have different magic from us. They can come and go from the castle as they wish and almost every one of us has a house- elf. Our elves can inform us if an attack is happening. Then we can go there with the help of our elves and return the same way. That way we would be well equipped to respond to any situation."

Harry nodded, "That can be done but we will need more than one elf. Perhaps we can borrow a few from Hogwarts when we need to move a lot of people. Also in case of an attack, we can have them evacuate with help of house elves then appear there to fight. I will put Kreacher and Dobby on these tasks starting now. You all would do well to ask your elves to evacuate your families from your houses in case of an attack before informing you."

Ron spoke, "How about to guarantee our family's safety and speed up our response, they just bring them to a safe house."

They were all nodding. Harry said further, "Also we need to decide who would go."

Immediately everyone started insisting that they all deserved to go and that they had been training exactly for that.

Harry pacified them, "Listen, all of you. We can't just appear as an army out of the school. That would make everyone suspicious if so many of the students have disappeared at once. We will have to form groups that can help. Now I would like you all to give your suggestions for the groups. For my part I would say that we keep a maximum of 4 students in a group."

The twins chorused agreement, "We can form 6 teams at least and that would be sufficient."

Harry turned to Hermione, "Have you worked out the task that I gave you?"

She nodded, "I have marked 50 who would fight with us in case Hogwarts is besieged."

He nodded, "Alright. I'd like to hear who can lead those teams."

Ernie chipped in, "One should obviously be you. Another can be Longbottom. The third can be me. The fourth should be Greengrass. The fifth would be Du Vant and the sixth can be the twins."

Harry asked everyone, "Is that agreed?" When they all nodded agreement, he asked, "Now as to the teams. Can we make our own choices?"

It was agreed that they could pick their own teams. Harry went first, "I would have Sue, Hermione and Ron in my team."

Ernie went second, "I want Justin, Lilith and Terry."

Daphne went third, "I want Mandy, Tracy and Fay."

Du Vant went fourth, "Since you all had your pick, I don't have much to go on, eh?" Everyone chuckled and he continued, "Alright I want Padma, Adrian Pucey and Harriet Jackson."

It was Neville's turn then, "I want Hannah, Rupert McNaughton and Michael Corner."

The twins went last, "We want the Old Quidditch team."

* * *

**A/N- so here is this chapter. As much as I want to speed up the story, I seem to keep it at a constant pace and just make it run. I hope none of you are getting bored with reading this or losing interest. Thank you all.**


	8. Chapter 8

Great Hall

All the muggle-born had gathered for the session with Professor Lester where she was supposed to be explaining about Liege-Lord Vassal bonds. Harry had decided to attend because he wanted to see how much Professor Lester was actually telling the students. If she withheld anything of what he had been told by Ragnok he was going to interject. Harry wasn't going to take on any more vassals unless they knew exactly what they were getting into.

Hermione had decided to attend the session too. Griphook had told her something about it, but she had not taken the time to pick up a book and learn more. She had seen the expanse of her estate and the family vault including the gold and ordered Ironjaw to invest her gold to bring returns. Other than that she had no idea of how the houses worked or what her duties were as a Head of House. She had started attending Professor Lester's lectures when she could and she understood a lot of things better than before. The topic of Vassals was an intriguing one which had her interested.

The house tables were standing at the side of the Great Hall to make room for small tables placed for the students to sit at. Everyone had parchment and quill ready before them as they waited for Professor Lester to start speaking. Harry chose a chair at the side where Professor Lester wouldn't notice him.

At the appointed time, Professor Lester stood. She pointed her wand at her throat and muttered 'Sonorus'. Her voice was magically amplified so that everyone in the Great Hall could hear her clearly even though she spoke at her usual volume. After she was sure that she had everyone's attention, she began, "As the Headmaster said this morning, I am going to tell you all about the system of Vassals. Vassals can be individuals or minor houses who haven't been around for long as such they don't have the standing as the Ancient and Most Noble Houses nor is their family magic as powerful or rich as the Ancient and Most Noble Houses. Vassals can be termed as sub-ordinates to the Ancient and Most Noble or Ancient and Noble Houses.

The need for such a system arose because at the time when this system came into being there were many feuds in our society and these disputes were usually solved by brute force and magic. Since the Older Houses had powerful magic, the minor houses needed the protection of older, larger houses so that they wouldn't be bullied by other larger and more powerful houses. To this effect, the minor Houses used to find a liege lord. A liege lord in return for protecting the vassals enjoyed their loyalty. The houses would remain loyal to him and would assist in protecting the family interests. If needed, they could implore their liege lord to fight for them.

Another part of this arrangement was that when the lord was engaged in combat, using the family magic, he could call upon the power of his vassals when he is in need. They are bound by honour and magic to respond. If a vassal fails to respond or even shows reluctance to respond, Mother Magic can impose a severe penalty which is generally removing the magic of the offending parties or their descendants, making them squibs. The same is true of the liege Lord if he fails to defend his vassal honourably. However there are only a few known cases where this has happened and they were all instances of vassals having a direct conflict with their liege Lord.

Many a blood feud has taken place in the past where the feuding parties had no direct quarrel between them but the Liege Lord was fighting for their vassal. The most recent example of such a blood feud was not very long ago and it involved a family which claimed to have descended from one of the founders and a family which descended from a Reverent house."

When she finished speaking, Harry's eyes spread in wonder as realization dawned on him. The blood feud between House Potter and House Smith was because House Potter was fighting for one of its vassals. It made him wonder about the identity of the Vassal house for which house of Potter went to such trouble.

Hermione raised her hand, "Professor, can you elaborate upon what a Liege Lord can ask from a Vassal?"

"I will give you an example Miss Granger. Let's assume that House of Potter is your Liege lord and Lord Potter is fighting a battle. Sometime during the battle, he is exhausted and needs strength to go on. Since you are protected by his family magic, he can call upon the family magic to give him strength and the strength would come from you. The Vassal would be like a back up for the lord."

Harry's eyes spread in shock as he realized what she was saying, "Professor do you mean to say if I am drawing energy from my Vassal then they would be exhausted in my place?"

Professor Lester shook her head, "No Mr. Peverell. What I mean is that the more vassals one has the more his strength would be augmented. The most powerful houses of Old had immense power at their disposal due to the number of Vassals that they had."

Harry nodded, "Professor, if someone is Lord of more than one house, how would it work in that case?"

She smirked, "In that case Mr. Peverell, the Lord would have to call upon the specific house magic to augment his strength. For instance, if House Rosier had some vassals, you can call upon the magic of House Rosier and the vassals of that house would augment your strength. I believe you know how to summon the House Magic since you demonstrated it in the middle of the Wizengamot."

Harry clearly remembered the day. On the day of his investiture, he had summoned the spirit of the magic of House Black to prove his claim.

One of the muggle born was asking, "Professor how can we decide who would be the perfect Liege Lord for our house? I mean, Are there some parameters for the said consideration?"

She nodded, "For that purpose, you would have to see the power that the Lord of that House wields; it's standing in the Wizarding World, whether he is able to fulfil his duties as a Liege Lord towards its Vassal. If the intended Lord fulfils these criteria, they are the perfect one to fill this role. You can also choose a liege lord on your personal preferences."

After a few more inconsequential questions, the session was declared over. Students started moving out of the Great Hall. Harry stayed behind deliberately. When everyone was gone, he approached Cassandra Lester, "Professor, can you tell me the name of the Vassal house for which House Potter fought a blood feud with House Smith?"

She gave him a mischievous grin, "Why Mr. Peverell, it was House Lester."

**Austria**

When Voldemort left Germany, it didn't take him long to get to Austria. As directed by Meyer, he found his contact in Austria with little trouble. His contact was a warlock who had helped Meyer every now and then and Meyer in his turn rewarded him with enough gold to keep him loyal. The Warlock's house was not overtly big or pretentious but he lived in a quaint little two floor cottage that looked like it had seen better days.

Voldemort thought he had been duped by Meyer because no warlock would be living in such a squalid place. However then his mind returned to the Gaunt Shack and what had become of it due to ill-keeping and the neglect of the occupants. His uncle Morfin was a humiliation to the noble name of Salazar Slytherin and so was his grand-father. They did not have had the finesse and subtlety that a Slytherin ought to have. They deserved to die the way they did. He had not heard of his uncle since that day except when he read in the Daily Prophet that he was carted off to Azkaban for killing a family of Muggles. He had felt a perverted pleasure at the looks of horror on the face of the muggle who had the misfortune to be his sire. He had abandoned his mother when she needed him. They deserved to die for desecrating a noble pureblood with their taint. He had never felt any remorse for killing them nor would he ever. He had come a long way since then. He was practically immortal. No one could kill him not even Harry Potter. The boy was powerful alright but there was no way that the boy could kill him, not with all the horcruxes he had created. Still, the boy would have to die because the prophecy said that he was the only one that could kill Voldemort. With the boy out of the way, nobody could ever get in the way of his plans to seize absolute power.

His musings were broken when he felt the presence of a ward around him. With a quick detection spell, his eyes spread in wonder. There were blood wards around the property. They could prove inconvenient to him if his host saw him as a threat. The cottage which looked like a squalid shack from the outside was magically expanded inside. It was furnished with all sorts of furniture and other fine things which could be found in a wizarding home. The floor was covered with expensive carpets while the walls were covered with portraits or paintings. There were torches in their brackets on the walls which gave light to the room. Also his host seemed powerful to him. He could sense that this was a wizard who would be hard to defeat.

"How can I help you, Voldemort?", the man brought him out of his musings.

Voldemort said coldly, "My name is Lord Voldemort. Remember to address me as such, fool."

Power crackled about the other wizard as he said haughtily, "Your arrogance is matched only by your stupidity. I will not pander to the likes of you, especially in my home. I do not suffer fools gladly, but I will give you one more chance to state your case for the sake of my friend Meyer. Test my patience again at your peril."

Voldemort recognized all the tricks this guy was using. The wards, the special effects and all. It was flashy stuff, intended to intimidate but Voldemort only felt a slight interest and mild annoyance that this wizard had the nerve to try it on him. Still, the power and the blood wards could not be faked. Taking this wizard out to erase the insults he had just uttered would be more trouble than it was worth. Besides, a dead wizard could tell no tales and it just might annoy Meyer if he killed one of his friends. Very well then, he came for information, not a fight. Better to play by this guy's rules for now.

He asked the man, "What do you know of the Dark Lord in Austria?"

"No one has even seen him nor do they know his name. His most loyal followers claim to have seen his face however no one matching that description has ever been found. He is a recluse who lives in the middle of a forest. His followers protect him with their lives. He is an expert in blood magics. He would toy with the likes of you for quite some time before he would put you down like a rabid werewolf. At my last reckoning, he had about 100 followers with him. That is all which is known about him."

"Has no one ever tried to catch him?", Voldemort asked. "I mean if they had the numbers they could have hunted him down."

The other wizard scoffed, "Many have gone looking for him. The few that have returned never got anywhere near him. He lives behind blood wards and you know what they are like. You cannot get into a place protected by blood wards if they are keyed to someone and you have plans to kill that someone exactly. And I have even heard that he is a parsel mouth."

Voldemort sneered, "Your concern for my well-being is touching. Let the blood wards be my concern. Now, tell me where I can find him."

The other wizard shrugged. If Voldemort wanted to dig his own grave, he was not going to stop him. Their adversary was powerful and the wards he hid behind could not be broken unless someone applied a great deal of brute force to them and even then it would require time to bring them down. Even if he were capable of doing it, he would need a small army to keep the defenders off of him while he did it and the effort would leave him too exhausted to fight if he ever got it done.

Voldemort was asking, "If one could fly to his place directly over the forest, would his followers be able to stop him?"

The other wizard laughed evilly, "Do you think that no one has ever tried that? First, that would not circumvent the blood wards. Second, whatever you fly in on, be it broom, hippogriff or thestral, it will be shot out of the sky and you will fall to your death. Even if you somehow manage to get through the blood wards and survive the fall, there are the guards to reckon with. You are but one wizard and you can't fight all of them and expect to live."

Voldemort smirked, "leave that to me. Just tell me where I can find him."

**Unknown Castle**

Groups of Death Eaters had been sent during the last hour to attack Muggle London. Their orders were clear- Apparate in, throw killing curses around and be gone as soon as the Aurors arrived. To ensure that the ministry would be forced to send large contingents, they were sending big groups of death eaters like 10 death eaters in each group. Their success last night had bolstered their confidence and they were starting to think that they could do whatever they wanted. There was no one who could stop them.

Now that they were sure that the Ministry Aurors were busy dealing with the attacks in muggle London, it was time to make their attack on the bigger targets. Rookwood had made it clear that the wards around Green Hues could not be broken unless they were analyzed so there were only two targets left for today- the home of the Weasleys in Devon and Bones Manor.

The Weasley home was not very big or very old. It was a known fact that it was built only a few decades ago. Floors were added haphazardly as the family grew. There would be some nasty wards around the place courtesy of Bill Weasley who was one of the finest curse Breakers at Gringotts but they would not stand up against a ward breaker. Those devices were made for the purpose of tearing down wards. Given sufficient time, they could chew through centuries worth of wards and it would take them only moments to destroy the wards around the Weasley Home. They had sent five death eaters to Weasley Home with a ward breaker. They needed the numbers because the Weasley's were a large family. It would not be amiss to be prepared, just in case.

For Bones Manor, they had decided not to use the ward breaker as it would not make much headway against their wards without taking a lot of time so they had decided to use brute force on it. Augustus Rookwood who was instructing his men had told them clearly not to use any Killing Curse on the wards. It was almost certain that Amelia Bones had taken to live at Bones Manor because it had centuries of war wards. Using Killing Curses on war wards meant certain death. In a way, they were more dangerous than the Fidelius Charm because while the charm would conceal, the war wards would kill. Bellatrix had dispatched 9 Death Eaters to destroy the wards around Bones Manor and kill Amelia Bones. She was a formidable witch who could deal with 3 Death Eaters at once and they would need numbers to destroy the wards with brute force.

**The Burrow**

Bill Weasley had received the patronus from Harry but had not yet vacated the Burrow for the manor. He liked his freedom as it was and he was not in the mood to leave. Besides he was proud of his strength. He knew that he could deal with two or three of the death eaters by himself. Also the wards he had erected would keep them out and give him some breathing room in case he needed to escape. He was also excited about his upcoming union with Fleur Delacour. She was the perfect witch for him and she loved him with all her heart. When he had seen her at Hogwarts, he was smitten but in the aftermath of the tournament with everything else going on, he had not connected with her before she had to return home.

It was the best day of his life when he noticed her in the lobby of Gringotts. She had just been placed here on her first assignment and they had bonded so well since the start. She was always very considerate towards him. She even put up with his family and his mother who for some reason did not like her. Molly Weasley was a very affectionate mother who loved her children but sometimes she could be overbearing and that irritated him. He had moved away from home as soon as he graduated because he knew he wouldn't be able to live his life as he wanted until he was out from under her hand. That was the reason that Charlie had also moved away from home as soon as he could. Now they were all back here with the war on their doorstep and the only bright spot was his upcoming wedding. Mrs. Weasley had pulled out all the stops for it and she had been busy making preparations. Every day she was at the Burrow asking his opinion about everything like the colour of the decorations, the flowers and all the silly little details that he couldn't care less about. All he wanted was to get married to Fleur and that was all. The rest of the details would have to be worked out by his father. He was the lord and as such it was his headache.

Suddenly he heard the wards chime and cautiously he peeked out of the window. What he saw was enough to make him wary. About 5 death eaters were at the ward line and they had a device among them on which they were working. He was a curse breaker and he recognized the device. It was a ward breaker. The wards he had erected would not stand up to it for more than 5 minutes. He tried to use the floo but it was down. He had a moment of panic before he remembered the letter he had received from Harry during the day. It had said to call his personal elf if he was in trouble.

He decided that he would escape and let the Burrow fall but not before he had given them something to remember him by. They had dared to invade his house and he would be damned if he did not make at least some of them regret this decision in their afterlife. In the tombs he often had to go in, he had learnt a lot of curses and jinxes. There were so many of them that he knew and never used but now felt like a good moment to put some of them to use.

With a blasting hex, he blasted the door away and stepped out. Next, he waved his wand in an intricate motion with a sharp jab at the end. A silvery grey cloud erupted from his wand. As the cloud floated towards the death eaters in the distance, he was already ducking back inside hollering, "Dobby!"

The elf appeared before him with a loud crack. He said in his high pitched voice, "What can Dobby for bes doing for Master Wheezy?"

"Dobby can you please take me out of here to Weasley Manor?"

The elf shook his head, "I not be going beyond the invisible ward."

Bill asked confused, "Invisible ward? You mean Fidelius Charm?"

The elf nodded and he continued, "Then take me to Hogsmeade. I will go home from there."

The elf nodded and holding his hand they were gone.

Outside the death eaters saw Bill waving his wand, sending a silver gray cloud towards them. They didn't know what it was, but it was a good bet that anything a curse breaker would throw at their enemy would be lethal and not in a pretty way either. They ran for their lives as the cloud pursued them but two of them didn't make it. As the cloud engulfed them, they first started to laugh uproariously but soon their laughter changed into cries of fear and shock. They let out such harrowing cries that the other death eaters shuddered to their core. When the fog finally dissipated, all that was left of the unfortunate duo was their skeletons and their wands.

At that moment the ward breaker finished breaking the ward around the Burrow. As the surviving death eaters stormed in, they were disappointed not to find anyone in the house. They checked the entire house from the ground floor to the top. The only living soul they found was the ghoul in the attic. In the frustration of their prey slipping out of their hands, they killed the ghoul and torched the Burrow. Placing the dark mark in the sky, leaving the house ablaze, they disappeared.

**Bones Manor**

At the time when the Burrow was being attacked there were attacks happening throughout the realm of Wizarding Britain. The idea of keeping an eye on the tracers was working since teams of Aurors were being sent promptly. As they had feared, the ministry was being stretched too thin. That was the reason that no help arrived when the Burrow was attacked. If not for Harry's forethought, Bill might have been killed.

Another team of 9 Death Eaters were approaching Bones Manor to attack it. Amelia had just returned from the Ministry and she was about to sit down to dinner when the wards flared. She had sent her protection detail to the Ministry to deal with the attacks and she was alone at that moment. She however did not lose her wits. Calmly summoning her elf, she ordered her to carry a message to the Ministry. She could have escaped the manor but she was not about to let Death Eaters touch her house or cause any damage to it. She would remind them why their master feared her.

The elf had been instructed by Susan to report to her if an attack was happening before going anywhere else. The elf popped into the Hufflepuff Dorms where Susan was immersed in a book, preparing for her OWLs. When the elf appeared, Susan was instantly worried, "Squeaky, what happened?"

The elf was shaken and could barely speak, "Mistress is be attacked. Bad wizards at the manor. Mistress sent for help."

Susan was freaked but Hannah who was near her had instantly calmed her down, "Sue, don't worry. Remember Harry had told us a plan to deal with such issues. I will send a message to him right away."

Susan ordered the elf, "Squeaky, take the message to the ministry. When they have received it, return to the manor and stand by in case auntie needs to be evacuated." The elf curtsied and vanished with a pop.

While Susan was giving instructions to the elf, Hannah tapped her wand to the wand holster to send a message to Harry, "Bones Manor being attacked now. Auntie Amelia is alone. Help her."

When Harry received the message, he jumped out of his bed rousing Ron, "Get up Ron. We're needed." Then he sent a patronus to Hermione while he retrieved his travelling cloak to put on.

Ron was up in a moment lunging for his wand on the bedside table. By the time they were both in the common room, Hermione arrived on the run. Harry was inwardly grateful that Neville was not in the dorms at that moment or he would have insisted on coming along. Harry had sent for Kreacher to take Susan to Bones Manor while Dobby who had just left Bill in Hogsmeade apparated Ron and Hermione to outside of Bones Manor. Harry knew where he had to go so he had no problem apparating there. He instructed Dobby to inform Remus as soon as he had apparated Ron and Hermione there.

When they appeared there at a distance from the ward line of the Manor, he could see at least 9 death eaters who were casting at the wards, trying to bring them down. Being centuries old they were, built on ley-lines and powerful, they wouldn't be down in five minutes like the wards at the Burrow.

Given his experience with the mystics, Harry thought he could reliably take on six of them by himself. That left one each for the order members who were with him. So, a fair fight then. He assumed command of the team and started laying out the battle plan, "With any luck, we should be able to take out four of them before they even know we're here. Attack from cover, attack their backs. Attack all at once on my signal. And make sure that we all attack different targets. We must use spells to cripple or kill, not stun or disarm. We cannot afford to allow any of them to re-enter the fight once we've got them down."

While they were moving into position, there was a faint pop as figures started appearing out of thin air. Evidently a few of the order of the Phoenix members had been at the Cottage on the Hill with Sirius and Remus. They had decided to come. There were Sirius, Remus, Emmeline and Sturgis Podmore.

Sirius asked him, "What's going on, Harry?"

Harry hastily explained, "Auntie is alone inside the manor. The Bones elf came to warn us about it. I suppose Aurors will be on their way soon. We were just about to ambush them."

Sirius looked like he wanted to chastise him but was trying not to. He gritted his teeth, "Stand back you lot! You have no business here. Harry you should not have dragged them here."

Susan protested defiantly, "That's my auntie in there. It's my choice to fight or not."

Remus pacified them, "Why don't we change strategy. I, Emmeline, Sirius, and Harry will attack from here. The rest of you can go in and help Amelia bolster the numbers."

Harry turned to Susan, "That makes sense Sue." She tried to protest but he pulled her close and kissed her, "We'll have time to fight about it later Sue. Let them handle it."

She reluctantly agreed. He had the elves take them inside. When they were out of harm's way, Harry turned to them, "So what's the plan?"

Sirius grinned, "Just one plan, pup. Attack."

The death eaters realized too late that they were surrounded. They had not been able to make a dent in the wards when two of their numbers fell to the ground, their bodies twisted in such a way that there was no doubt that someone had used bone breakers on them. They turned around, realised they were about to taken down by some of the most powerful wizards and wanted to run but it was too late.

Harry had already snared one of them in the firewhip, cleaving his head cleanly off his body and engaged another. Sirius had pierced another one with a javelin through his heart and was trying to kill another with cutters. Remus already had one spread on the ground, his limbs flailing and his eyes vacant with a wound to the side of his head and the other had raised a shield, wary of the werewolf. Emmeline had shattered the spine of her opponent and was standing by with her wand ready in case any of the others got into trouble.

It was at this point when Moody arrived on the scene with three other Aurors. They responded as quickly as they could when Squeaky had brought word to the ministry. The first thing he did was fire a bone shattering hex at the back of the head of the one Remus was fighting. The other Aurors didn't have much to do as Harry's opponent went down to a spell chain of shield-breaker, bone breaker to the wand arm and bone crusher to the chest. Sirius' opponent lost his wand hand to a cutter then lost his life when his skull exploded. The only survivors among the death eaters were the first two who went down to bone breakers to their legs and wand arms. Just to be on the safe side, Moody stunned them then bound them from head to toe with chains. It looked like they might be having trouble breathing in there. The other Aurors gathered up the wands of the fallen would be assassins.

The battle was over within minutes and Amelia was informed that it was safe to come out. When she did come out, she was scowling, "Harry why did you bring Susie here? I had already sent for the Aurors and I could deal with them. There was no reason for children to get involved."

Behind her, the three children looked queasy from all the blood and gore of the battle. Harry was sure that they would throw up sooner or later.

Moody growled, "It's a good thing that they were here. Most of our men are already engaged in little skirmishes all over Wizarding Britain. By the time we were able to respond to your situation, it might have been too late."

Harry approached Amelia, "I'm sorry Auntie if you feel that what I did was wrong but you are important to us. We could not risk you."

Moody asked him curiously, "How did you know that you were needed here though?"

Harry shook his head, "Sorry, Master Auror. The Order of the Snow Leopard has its ways."

Moody barked a laugh, "I will be sure to mention this Order to the Daily Prophet. That'll get the death eater's robes in a twist."

Sirius asked him, "What'll you do with the two survivors?"

Moody growled, "I like to break them, Black. A man needs some entertainment, doesn't he? I might even get some useful information out of them while I'm at it."

It turned out that another one was alive. Well, sort-of. By the looks of the wound to the side of his head, he wouldn't ever be talking again even if he did live. Leaving Moody to deal with the situation, the students returned to the castle.

Sending Ron and Hermione up to the dormitories, Harry and Susan sneaked up to the Astronomy Tower. They chose a secluded corner to sit and cast some charms about them to keep the weather away and indulged in star gazing with mugs of hot chocolate in their hands.

Susan asked him, "Harry, did you not feel remorse when you killed them?"

Harry took some moments to answer her, "I don't take any pleasure in killing. They were there to kill your Auntie. Who knows how many they have killed before or would have gone on to kill if we had not stopped them? If I had not killed them, I would be responsible for every life they took from that time onwards. Non violence is good but when you're at war, non-violence and mercy may not be an option."

"An intriguing thought Harry but seeing you are breaking curfew with Susan here, I think a detention and 20 points apiece is in order", said Albus Dumbledore who was standing at the door of the Astronomy tower, his eyes twinkling and a serene smile on his lips.

**Ministry of Magic**

"What're we doing to ensure the safety of Muggles, Alastor?", Frank roared, "We are supposed to protect them and yet their casualties are mounting. Tell me how we can help them and protect them. It's one small mercy that he is not yet sending Dementors to do his bidding. If they were involved we would be more hard pressed to deal with those situations."

Alastor Moody had no answer for the minister. They were able to dispatch quickly thanks to the tracers, but it still wasn't quick enough. If only there was a way to be there waiting when the death eaters arrived. But that was impossible.

He shook his head, "I can't see any way that we would be foretold about an attack at any place. I mean we try to be as quick as we can be but it just isn't quick enough. By the time our people arrive, the death eaters have already fled, leaving carnage and the dark mark hovering in the sky. Our Obliviators are collapsing from exhaustion, trying to keep up with the work load. I swear, if it weren't for the International Statute of Secrecy, I'd enlist the muggles instead of obliviating the lot of 'em. What's more, with all these random attacks recently, we're stretched pretty thin. We don't have enough people to deal with it all. The only thing I can think of is to put Aurors and trainee Aurors on patrol all over the country but I'd rather not do that because I can only send them out in ones and twos so they could get jumped and killed. The other problem is that a trainee who's out on patrol is a trainee that's not training. We're just going to have to come up with another way to deal with this menace."

Frank nodded, "Keep working on it, Alastor. One of us is sure to come up with something. Let's hear today's report."

"In the 10 raids that the death eaters did tonight, we lost about 30 muggles. 10 more were grievously injured and were taken to St. Mungo's for treatment. The obliviators are working double shifts and we lost two Aurors tonight. The Burrow was burned to the ground and their family ghoul was killed. Bones Manor was also attacked. Six death eaters were killed and one more succumbed to his injuries without regaining consciousness later. The two survivors are awaiting my attention. I am also told that Bill Weasley had just vacated the Burrow on advance warnings of a well-wisher. We also found two skeletons at the Burrow which we are certain were death eaters once. We intend to question Bill Weasley about it later. At Bones Manor, we were late in responding to the distress call. Madam Bones' security detail was at the Ministry. When we arrived on the scene, the members of the Order of the Snow Leopard and Order of the Phoenix were already on the scene. They had already handled the situation", he finished.

"The Order of the Snow Leopard? What is that?", Frank asked.

Moody grinned, "It's a secret society like the Order of the Phoenix and it works in close co-ordination with the Order of the Phoenix. The whereabouts of the leader are not known nor is his identity a public matter. What we know for certain is that they have their own ways to reach somewhere ahead of the Aurors and they can fight well."

Frank glared at him, "Don't talk in riddles Alastor. What is this new Order?"

Moody shook his head, "Sorry, can't talk. I've taken a vow of silence about its members. Rest assured that they are friends."

**HOGWARTS**

Breakfast time saw most of the members of the Order of the Snow Leopard sitting at the far end of the Gryffindor Table for breakfast under a silencing ward. Hermione was comforting Ron who hadn't taken it well when he received a letter from Arthur telling him that although Bill had escaped harm, the Burrow had burned down and the family ghoul had been killed. Arthur went on to say that he felt it was better to hear it from his father first than to read it in the Prophet. It was certain to be on the front page.

Harry had told the twins and Ginny about it while Hermione worked on Ron. They were relieved that no one else was harmed and Ginny joked that perhaps Ron was sad about the Ghoul which had been his childhood companion.

The Daily Prophet had a field day with the attacks the next day. The front page of the news paper had a photo of the blazing inferno that had been the Burrow. The story read:

_**"Ministry Officials attacked**_

_Yesterday, the death eaters attacked the Ministry of Magic official's residences while attacks were being made on muggles. In the raids conducted throughout Muggle London, it is estimated that about 30 muggles were killed while 10 more were grievously injured._

_As it later turned out the said attacks were done to distract the ministry forces and keep them occupied while the Death Eaters attacked the homes of Ministry Officials. One such attack happened on the home of the Weasleys in Devon. By the time fire fighters (Muggle authorities who deal with fire and related catastrophes) arrived, the home was already a total loss. Luckily the only casualty was the ghoul they kept in the attic._

_Lord Weasley had this to say about the incident, "We had changed residence about 6 months ago after the Triwizard Tournament. We have always believed Albus Dumbledore and Lord Peverell's word that Voldemort was back. Accordingly, we took precautions to keep ourselves safe."_

That however was not the end of it. A short while after the attack on the Weasley home, there was another attack at Bones Manor and Madam Bones was home at the time. The attacking death eaters were swiftly dealt with through the intervention of members of the secret Order of the Phoenix and a new force calling themselves Order of the Snow Leopard. When Aurors from the ministry arrived led by Master Auror Mad-eye Moody, there wasn't much left for them to do.

The ministry has commended the efforts made by the said orders and their members in helping the Ministry forces to tackle the menace of death eaters."

There was another piece of news in the lower half of the newspaper which read:

_**"THE ORDER OF THE SNOW LEOPARD: VIGILANTES OR ANOTHER MENACE?"**_

_The press release issued by the Ministry of Magic last night stated that members of the Secret Order of the Phoenix and a hitherto unknown group calling themselves Order of the Snow Leopard combined forces to thwart the death eater attack on Bones Manner. It is widely known that the Order of the Phoenix was a factor during the last war and they actively opposed the death eaters at great personal risk and sacrifice. What was not known was who the members of the said order were. It has been speculated that such upstanding members of our society as the late Edgar and Ellie Bones, the late Lilly and James Potter, our general and his wife and Alastor Moody were some of the members, with no less a personage than Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore as their founder and leader._

_As of this writing, little to nothing is known about this new Order of the Snow Leopard. If anyone knows anything about their membership or objectives, they're not talking. One ministry insider has speculated that they are a splinter faction from The Order of the Phoenix that was not content with the older order's leadership. The same source has also put forward that this new faction may have its own designs on controlling our society. Apprehensions remain about this order and its objectives but we hope that it is not yet another threat to our way of life that has reared its ugly head."_

Harry read the paper and let out a long sigh. Mandy who was sitting near him asked, "What happened? Bad news in the paper?"

Hermione said darkly, "It's just the Daily Prophet being an idiot again. There's this stupid article, full of dark speculation about The Order of the Snow Leopard. It's nothing but speculation and innuendo and not solid facts or reputable sources. I thought they had stopped publishing this sort of rubbish."

Daphne said, "Relax Hermione. They're just speculating. I'd have thought you were used to it by now."

Harry clamped down hard on his Occlumency shields to keep from smirking. He said seriously, "Try to put yourself in their position. This new faction shows up out of nowhere and takes out a bunch of death eaters and there's nothing known about them. When their reporter tries to investigate, they get stonewalled and they don't know if these new guys are helping out the ministry or eliminating the competition and they can't publish any facts and certain types of rumors to sell papers. So, that's what they publish. I wouldn't worry too much about it."

Hermione shook her head, "I guess you are right. I over-reacted."

Terry asked them, "So what happened yesterday? I mean you people were obviously in the middle of it."

Ron scowled, "Yeah! Some adventure." He waggled his spoon at Harry with a potato still speared on it, "Before we could fire a single curse, some of our backup arrived and they forced us to safety. Among us nobody except him got a chance to do anything."

Harry turned to him, "Ron, this isn't some sort of kid's game. Some of us could have been killed if things went badly. We are last resort back-up, not hardened combat troops. I'm glad the others showed up when they did or we would have had to fight four on nine. I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are not the main force or ministry Aurors. We have to be more careful out there because we are less experienced."

Neville asked him, "Why I was not informed?"

Harry warily eyed him, "Did you by any chance forget that you have your own group? If needed, I would have sent Dobby to fetch you."

At that moment, they heard the familiar slow drawl of Severus Snape behind them, "Potter! The Headmaster has told me to inform you that you and Miss Bones will be serving your detention with me this evening at 7:00 in my office. As much as I loathe wasting an evening with you, I have to abide with the headmaster's orders."

Harry actually had the audacity to smirk, "Of course Professor. We will be there at 7:00."

As Snape turned to go, he said over his back, "And 10 points from Gryffindor for the smirk, Potter."

When Snape was gone, Hermione asked, "What just happened? Was it my imagination or was Snape actually trying to smirk at you? And I noticed his voice didn't have the usual vitriol in it. Are we sure it is Professor Snape and not someone using Polyjuice?"

Harry gave her a very mischievous grin, "You would have to ask him Hermione. As for whether it's Professor Snape or not I don't think someone can actually copy his mannerisms."

Hannah asked them, "Also when did you get a detention from Dumbledore?"

Harry blushed a little, "It was when we had sneaked up to the Astronomy Tower for star gazing after we had returned. Dumbledore found us there and put us in detention."

Things in the castle on other hand were business as usual. The students were enjoying the last of their youthful innocence before war would claim it from them. Between morning sessions to start again, Harry reinstituting the morning work-outs and the crunch of getting ready for their OWLs, it was getting hard to find the time to be up to anything else.

For most of the fifth years, it was busy. For Harry, it was more so. There was the management of The Order of the Snow Leopard, the extra practice sessions in the Chamber of Secrets, business reports from Moony, instruction for the students practicing defensive magic in the Room of Requirement and a number of students approaching him about sponsoring them for their inheritance tests. It was hard to find time to do the class assignments and he wish he could use a time-turner like the one Hermione had in third year. He knew the material well enough, it was just finding the time to sit down and write it out. He had set certain hours to do the assignments on his weekly schedule and he wanted to spend time with Susan too. Fortunately for him, Susan kept him honest. Whenever they got together, if he couldn't show her his finished homework, she "encouraged" him to finish it before they got up to anything else. If Harry objected, she simply reminded him that every minute he spent in detention was one less minute they could spend together. Her logic was inescapable and Harry completed his work with a will.

Flitwick was teaching at his usual pace, not fretting at all. He had made them revise all the charms he had taught them previously. At times he would quiz the students about how a charm could be used in a situation like a duel or a fight. At the end of class, he assigned two feet of parchment on the uses of the charms he had revised during the class.

McGonagall was on the warpath since the term started. She was personally going after every student in the class. She kept after them until they could perform to her satisfaction. If some of them were having difficulty, she worked with them until they got it right. She would also keep testing them on things where she knew they needed work. Like Flitwick, she also challenged people in the class to come up with ways to use what she had taught that were unconventional. That forced the students to think. Simple book learning was not going to be enough to pass her class. It really showed the strengths of students who were good at the practical and thinking on their feet like Harry.

Vikram had taught them the spells which were used as part of defensive magic and he had not taught them anything more dangerous than a reductor or a blasting hex. As far as OWLs were concerned, that was all that was required. The curriculum of Hogwarts was such that it severely curtailed what he could teach to them but with the spells that he had taught to them, even those who were not active members of the Order of the Snow Leopard would have no problem defending themselves if it came down to it. He had also taught advanced shields as well as the simple protego to students while stressing the importance of dodging. He had spent the entire year teaching all of them, making sure that they would be able to defend themselves even if they were not inclined to be fighters.

Snape had been his usual sneering, drawling, sarcastic, criticizing self since the start of term however that had changed in the next lesson after 4 of his precious Slytherins had been expelled. They had just entered the dungeon and were taking their assigned seats when he started to speak in his low drawl, "Since we have had four of our students expelled from amongst us I believe it is time that we made certain adjustments. As there is not much time left in this term, you may all accommodate yourselves as you wish."

Immediately Draco leaned in to say something in Runcorn's ear. She gladly traded places with Bulstrode. Runcorn moved over to join Dean Thomas. Parvati Patil paired up with Fay while Lavender paired with the last remaining student that being Seamus Finnigan. Of course, Harry, Ron, Daphne and Hermione, Neville stayed where they were.

When the class started, Snape had even smiled at Harry for something he said and at a comment which would have earned Harry a detention in the past. They had also seen Snape grin. Hermione thought she was seeing things. Nobody had ever seen Severus Snape grin, especially at anything Harry said. Evidently the sentiment was shared by Malfoy who stayed after class.

After others were gone, he asked him, "Professor, are you alright?"

Snape raised an eyebrow, "What makes you think something is wrong?"

He apprehensively said, "I have never seen you so much as smile before. Today you were grinning. And over something Potter said at that."

Severus said indifferently, "I have my own plans for him. For now, that means that I have to appear to be friendly with him to win his confidence."

Apart from that, Professor Sprout had Harry, Neville and a few other students come to the Greenhouses a few times so that they could handle the plants which were housed in the new greenhouse. The New Greenhouse was protected with some intricate wards and charms so that no one could get in by mistake. If someone got in there without knowing exactly what they were about, that would mean certain death for them. She had taught them everything that she wanted and had declared that they were as ready as they could be for the OWLs at the end of the term. The OWLs were the objective which they were vying for irrespective of the war knocking at the door.

Professor Hughes had them write two essays a week and none of her essays were to be copied from the books. She never set a minimum length of parchment for them but she told them to write in their own words and she would mark them according to that. They would get their grades according to what they had written so they would know how much more work they had to do. If she ever found that two essays were the same, she would put both students in detention and give them both T's for copying. A couple of students had actually started to think that perhaps they were better off when Binns was teaching them. Professor Hughes could be a holy terror.

**Hogwarts Archives**

Dumbledore was routing through the archives. They contained tomes, volumes, letters, and records of every type imaginable that dated from the time the school was first built. There were some volumes left by the founders that contained their personal journals and family records. That was the section where Dumbledore was looking. Harsh may have known the founders personally, but they didn't tell him everything. One such thing was the location of the Ravenclaw Diadem.

Albus knew for certain that the diadem was not with Rowena when she died. She had lied to everyone that she still had it but the diadem had been taken by her daughter Helena Ravenclaw who vanished with it. Alas that was the end of the story which Dumbledore could find. There was no mention of the Diadem anywhere after that. He however was hopeful that perhaps the Diadem was recovered at a more recent point in time or maybe Helena's descendants had attended Hogwarts under a different family name. Those questions could only be answered if someone accessed the family tree of Rowena Ravenclaw. Unknown to almost everyone, her family tree was kept in the Archives of Hogwarts along with those of Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Slytherin.

He had once seen the family tree when he was introduced to the Archives by Armando Dippet, the previous Headmaster of Hogwarts. Since then, he never had a reason to access them. The next time that he had used that room, it was to check the family tree of Slytherin during the fiasco of the Heir of Slytherin during young Harry's second year. The family tree had shown what he had always suspected. Voldemort (Tom Riddle) was the heir of Slytherin. Since it never occurred to him that Voldemort could have made Horcruxes or that one day he would have to find the elusive Helena Ravenclaw, there was no reason for him to check Rowena's family tree.

The family tree was vast. It had so many branches that it took him quite a while to reach the name of Helena Ravenclaw. When he did, he was disappointed. Helena had died without marrying or having children where meant there was no descendant of hers running around. It also made him wonder exactly how Voldemort had got his hands on it.

He was about to leave when he found a very old journal kept neatly on one of the shelves. The name of the owner was scribed in neat bold letters on the spine and cover, "Helena Ravenclaw".

His heart started to hammer excitedly in his chest. May be this journal would be of some use to him to figure out what had happened to that diadem. It was a pity there was no portrait of Helena in the castle or he could have asked it. Being honour bound, it would have given him all the answers that he sought.

He decided to read the journal thoroughly and try to find anything which might be of some use to him. May be he could enlist Harry and Neville's help in this task. They were young, had different ways of thinking than him. They would be able to see things in a different light than him.

Clutching the journal tightly to his chest, he walked out of the Archives.

**Unknown Castle**

Bellatrix was seething. She had meticulously planned the attacks and yet, all she got for her trouble and 11 more of the faithful lost was a bonfire and a meaningless handful of dead muggles. No Ministry Officials! Not a single one of the ministry officials had died. She was sure that the ministry would find a way to keep the death eaters contained soon. The element of surprise which they had would not work for long. They lost 9 death eaters in the attack at Bones Manor and two more had died at the Weasley home.

She thought about why the Aurors were not so confident in the last war. It occurred to her that the Dark Lord always sent his commanders with any attack and the Aurors feared them. This time they were sitting on their hands, sending their underlings to do their dirty work. The Aurors knew that the top brass would not venture out because of the huge bounties on their heads, while the underlings posed no threat to them. Perhaps it was time that she started venturing out on missions herself. That would bring some excitement to her and others. The castle was vast and the grounds extensive, but she was still starting to go stir crazy.

"What's the agenda of this meeting, Bella?", asked Rudolphus.

She bristled, "Do not call me Bella. Try that one more time and I will Crucio you."

Dolohov pacified her, "You can sort your quarrel with him later. For now let us know why you've summoned us here?"

"It is time that we went out and fought the Aurors ourselves, rather than leaving that task to the troops. They will learn the meaning of fear when we show them our power. They shall see our faces and flee. They shall tremble at the mention of our very names! We shall not retreat when they show up. No. We shall stand and duel with them. They shall know pain, then they shall know fear, they shall know despair and finally, they shall die."

Dolohov grinned, "So when do I leave?"

She smirked maliciously, "I will go first. I have some scores to settle. May be I will be lucky enough to run into Sirius Black and kill him."

Keeping his face impassive, Severus listened to everything that was being said. He decided to relay this tidbit to the Ministry. If the Inner Circle was going to step in then, the ministry was going to have to be ready to face a whole new level of threat. He would have no problem using an Unforgivable after all these years. There was still enough hatred for the Dark Lord in him. It was time to channel this hatred. He gave a surreptitious glance around the room to consider who could be put under the curse and not resist it. Someone whose mind was already broken would be the perfect candidate. His gaze stopped at Rabbastan who had been the most affected. As Severus understood it, the scion of the House of Lestrange never had much mental protection to begin with. Whatever he did have had eroded with the passage of time and exposure to the Dementors. He also did not have much in the way of will power so Severus would have no problem in subduing him.

When the meeting was dismissed, he found Rabbastan in his chamber, "Lestrange, I want a word."

Rabbastan had once been a friend to him in school. He had helped him in some tight corners. He always saw Severus with favour so it was safe to assume that he had no idea what was going to befall him.

He smiled at the Potions Master, "Yes Severus, do you need anything from me?"

Severus drawled, "I was wondering if you had some fine mead around this place. I wanted to sit down with you and reminisce about the old days."

Rabbastan grinned, "Funny you should ask. Father has been kind enough to send me so much that I won't run out for at least another 2 months. Come and have some."

Severus kept him talking for about an hour. After he had filled him with enough mead, he levelled his wand at Rabbastan and intoned, "Imperio."

Rabbastan who had no defenses to begin with and was now deep in his cups could do nothing to resist him. When Snape was sure that he was firmly under his control, he tossed a Galleon to him, "Whenever any of the members of the inner circle are going on a raid, send the place and time instantly on this coin. If you receive instructions on this coin, carry them out as soon as you are able. Be careful to act normally when anyone else is around. Never let them know that anything is amiss. If anyone suspects something, feel free to kill them discretely. Now sleep."

The coin had a protean charm on it which connected to a similar coin that Snape carried. The other man didn't need to know that detail. With that Severus walked out of the chamber, leaving Rabbastan to go to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**The Dungeons**

Snape had been avoiding having Harry Potter in detention with him since the beginning of the year, but orders were orders. Dumbledore had made it clear that Snape was to supervise this detention. However he knew what he would have the boy and Bones do. He had some frog brains in his stores that needed to be pickled and he had been too busy to get to it himself with everything that had been going on. Not only could he get these two to perform this rather unpleasant task, it would also give him the opportunity to inform Harry about the changes in tactics the inner circle were planning.

When they arrived, Severus was in his chair, reading a tome. He didn't look up from what he was doing. He said, "You will both be pickling frog brains for me this evening. Gloves will not be required."

Disgusting work it was but Harry was a dab hand at it due to his extensive experience with the task from his detentions with Snape the previous years. Snape had not mentioned whether they were permitted to use magic for the task, but Harry decided that he'd best not push his luck and did it manually.

It took them about two hours. Harry took a careful look around and could find no more frog brains to process. Harry carefully cleared his throat and addressed the professor, "Professor, it would appear that we are done."

Snape gave a critical examination to the line of freshly packed jars. Finding no flaw in the work, he nodded to Susan, "Miss Bones, you can go." Harry looked quizzically at the professor, then Snape continued, "I want a word with you, Potter."

Harry, being both curious and perceptive, realized that perhaps Snape had something important to discuss. The moment that Susan was out the door, Harry cast a locking charm and privacy ward.

Snape did not disappoint, nor did he waste any words, "In the last meeting at the hidden castle, Bellatrix Nameless decided that the inner circle members would start going on raids now. I don't need to impress upon you the gravity of this situation. If the inner circle is going out, things will almost certainly change for the worse. The Aurors may be outnumbered, possibly slaughtered. Certainly, greater care must be taken to prevent this. Of course, I have already told Dumbledore but I thought you should know also."

Harry nodded. He thought that up to now, the inner circle have been hiding, sending lesser minions out to do their bidding. So far, it hadn't worked out well for them. The Aurors had been killing or capturing about ten times as many death eaters as they had lost in Aurors. If the inner circle were now desperate or arrogant enough to stick their slimy heads out of their hidey-hole, Harry and his friends would have a crack at bringing them down. But he wasn't going to tell Snape that, "Thank you for telling me Professor, but I don't know what I would do with that information. It's not as if I am an Auror or a soldier. The Ministry is in charge and General Longbottom is their commander. We are in capable hands."

**A week later **

**Austria**

Voldemort knew that he had to defeat the Dark Lord in Austria if he wanted to augment his forces. The major problem, he thought, was how to defeat the blood wards. Given time, he could break them but not while having to fend off the followers of the other Dark Lord. Evidently there were many and they could all band together against him. He knew that even he could not face more than 6 or 7 at once so that was going to be a problem. Besides, who knew what they could do to him. He did not know their capabilities and Voldemort had no illusion that these would not be ruthless, cruel wizards just like himself.

He remembered that Abaddon had told him that blood wards could not be broken by sheer will alone, because if one could do that, the blood wards would have been worthless. What he did know was that there was a limitation to the blood wards. One simply could not cast a blood ward over a very large area. If he could ascertain the limit of those wards, there was a lot more that he could do than just cast ward breakers mindlessly.

Since he had started this quest, Voldemort had realized that he never attained the finesse that he wanted while he was young. He was subtle, manipulative and sneaky when he was still known as Tom Marvolo Riddle but ever since he became Lord Voldemort, he had lost his touch. Everything that he did after he had become Lord Voldemort was known to the old fool. Albus Dumbledore knew everything that went on in the Wizarding World and he had always interfered with his work.

He had been able to fool Armando Dippet when he opened the Chamber of Secrets for the first time. Opening the chamber was not a big deal for him. He had heard about the legends of the chamber and asking a few questions of the right people, he had got an idea about where the chamber could be. It had taken him a few years of roaming around the castle and inspecting every nook and cranny before he stumbled upon the bathroom. When he found the tap, he had no idea why there would be a snake on the tap but his curiosity had been piqued when it opened with parsel tongue. However before he could fulfil his dreams of eliminating the mud bloods, Myrtle Warren had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and died from the basilisk's stare as it emerged from the Chamber of Secrets. Her death had been ill timed. His plans had to be put on hold. Ever since that day, Dumbledore had dogged his steps and perhaps he kept track of his business with the help of sorcerers around the world.

Dumbledore definitely knew when Voldemort started on his campaign. He had resisted him at every step. He was thankful that Dumbledore did not know about his Horcruxes or the old fool would have been on the warpath to seek and destroy them. (Little did he know that between Harry, the mystics and Dumbledore, five had already been discovered and they were already on the trail of the remaining two). There was a link with Horcruxes that Voldemort had ignored over the years and had never stopped to think about it. He was afraid about Slughorn. If the potions master ever told Dumbledore about their conversation, his secret would be in danger. However with Slughorn's whereabouts unknown, it was entirely possible that Dumbledore would never know about his secret. He thought, however, that he should have killed Slughorn just to be on the safe side when he had the time but the pesky little fondness he used to have for the potions teacher and the thought that may be Slughorn could be seduced to join the dark had stayed his hand. Slughorn was a fool who basked in the reflected glory of his famous students, was loyal to Dumbledore and was firmly entrenched in the light.

The very thought of undying loyalty made Voldemort's stomach squirm. He had never been loyal to anyone but himself. He had no delusion that anything other than fear, greed and prejudice kept his own followers in line. He tortured them every now and then to remind them why he was feared. He knew that they were no better than cockroaches who would run for cover when the light is turned on. Most of them had run for cover when he fell to Harry Potter. They had returned the moment he gained a body but he was sure, most of them only came back because they knew what would happen to them if they didn't. They were leeches but he had his uses for them or he would have crucioed them until the last one went insane or died from the pain.

He had spent the last week, probing the edges of this dark lord's blood wards, trying to determine their extent and how to bring them down. Even with all of the stealth at his command, he was being careful not to use too much power lest he attract unwanted attention before he was ready to fight. It was as he had been told. The amount of force required to bring the blood wards down by force would leave him exhausted and vulnerable. Bringing the wards down by subtlety would require time and a myriad of complex spells which he could not perform while fighting off defenders. Interwoven with the wards were detection spells that would alert the dark lord as soon as he started to try and bring the wards down.

There was one place that appeared to be a weak spot in the perimeter, but this was an obvious trap. He decided instead to work on the place where the wards appeared to be strongest. It would be interesting to see what the other dark wizard was trying to hide there. Voldemort began his work by laying down some wards of his own. If any wizard came within wand range, he would know about it. Next, he carefully drained and dismantled the other wizard's detection wards. The next layer was the concealment wards. Under those were more detection wards. The ward-stones were buried deep under the roots of what appeared to be ancient trees, but this was a lie. None of the trees were more than 20 years old. They had been force-grown and made to look ancient with magic. When he was absolutely certain that the last layers of detection and concealment were dispelled, he simply vanished the blood which formed the runes of the final blood ward.

He could feel the power of the malevolent ward tremble, fade and finally die. The work of the better part of a day complete and still, no defenders had appeared. Casting one more round of detection spells to make certain that he had created an opening; Voldemort took his first cautious step through the perimeter.

Voldemort knew that defenders of some sort were bound to appear soon. Subtle or not, someone was going to notice his work and come to investigate. He wondered what kind of dark lord this man was. Did his people follow him with blind loyalty? Did they obey him out of fear of punishment as his own followers did? How many of them were willing to die to protect their leader? How many of them had to die before he would come out to meet the threat himself or would he use his minions as a shield while he made good his cowardly escape? Voldemort was curious, but it mattered little because regardless of what the answers might be, very soon, this man would grant his demands or die.

He had only walked a few paces when he detected another batch of wards. These appeared to be older, less expertly made, but no less deadly. He guessed that this must have been the perimeter before the outer wards were made. Despite his firm belief in his own superiority, Voldemort was impressed. Even the oldest castles in Britain usually only had one perimeter of wards. Undaunted, he set up his own detection wards and set about his business again. He fully expected that sometime soon, one of the creatures or followers that this dark wizard had at his command would detect him in spite of his best efforts at concealment.

On the other side, the Austrian dark lord watched Voldemort's progress through his outer defenses. When one knew blood magic, it was a simple matter to turn any creature, insect or plant into a spy. Currently, he was using honey bees to do his reconnaissance. They can see into the ultra-violet which makes the disillusionment spell useless. The snake-faced man had been poking around his perimeter for a week now. He had passed on the place where there were obvious weaknesses and decided to go where he was most strongly fortified. It wasn't a trap; it was a test of character. Whoever this fellow was, he was confident in his own abilities and not afraid of some hard work. He had already managed to create a breach in the outermost perimeter with the lightest of touch, showing that he knew how to detect and be subtle. But now, the man was working on the inner defenses and that was going to need a response. With an apparition softer than thought, the man placed himself by the detection wards which Voldemort had placed earlier. He carefully removed the one that covered the tree where the rune stone was buried, then restored the runes in the next minute. The trap closed, he apparated back to his sanctum. Now came the time to test this intruder.

Voldemort was still working on the first layer of concealment wards when a rapid series of pops followed by his detection wards flaring notified him that opposition had finally arrived. He felt a warm rush as his disillusionment spell was terminated. The first wizard died as his entrails exploded from his body. The answering bone breakers and stunners from the other wizards failed to find their marks as Voldemort was no longer standing there. An obsidian jet from Voldemort caused another of the defenders to shrivel to a husk and expel a death-rattle as he fell to the ground. Voldemort shielded as the remaining defenders blasted at him with reducto maxima and a wide-area stunner. For minions, these people were disciplined and seemingly not afraid to die. If he had dodged a second time, the stunner would have got him. They fired another volley at him, this time a shield breaker and three bone crushers. He dodged the shield breaker and returned the bone crushers. The third defender died as his skull exploded. With that, the defenders seemed to have had enough and they disapparated away. Voldemort attempted to disapparate away himself but the result was a gut wrenching sensation as he stayed right where he was. He tried to walk back out through the gap he had created earlier, but his magic let him know that there was something there that would be "inconvenient" if he attempted to pass through it. Left with no other course of action, he raised the three dead wizards as inferi and returned to his work of destroying the wards. Knowing that subtlety was no longer useful, he went at it with a will.

He had a war to start, a nemesis to kill and wizards to bow before him. Wizarding Britain was waiting for him. He had no time to waste. He was here to gain wands and knowledge to assist in his cause. It was time to bend this Austrian dark lord to his will or remove him from his path. He had always been rewarded in his quests for knowledge. Among other things, that had given him the horcruxes that had preserved his life when he would certainly have died otherwise. His quest for power however, that had led to his downfall with the Potter child, his body being distorted into its present form, that he had to forsake anyone who might have been his friend. Followers, minions he had. After today he would have more, but none of them, were his friends. Eventually, he knew that there would be a day of reckoning, but he deluded himself that he could put off that day forever.

The Austrian dark lord sat safely in his sanctum. As he heard the reports of his surviving followers, he was able to better size up the intruder. The wizard was methodical and deadly, not a hasty fool. He successfully fended off the coordinated attacks that were directed at him. He had no qualms about using the darkest of magic but was wise enough to stay away from the killing curse while within the wards. He had methodically dismantled the troops that had attacked him just as he had done to the wards. He had heard from Waldhem Meyer that this Voldemort was actually a half-blood named Tom Riddle. He had been a favorite student of Abbadon wich meant that he knew of some old necromantic magic. The proof of that was how easily he had raised the dead wizards after they were slain. The other thing he heard was that this maniac cared nothing for the lives of his followers. He branded them like cattle. He would expend them at will if it served his purpose. Then why had he not brought any cannon fodder with him? Did he expect to take on the local dark lord and all of his forces single handed? Was that hubris or confidence? From what he had seen so far, it just might be the latter.

As he watched Voldemort chew his way through the layers of wards, he thought that perhaps, with an all-out battle, recklessly expending the lives of his followers, he just might be able to bring this wizard down. But the question was, would it be worth the cost? Unlike the invader, he cared for his followers. The way he taught and protected them in return for their service was much like the way vassals worked with the ancient and noble houses of Britain. Very well then, one more try before he confronted Tom himself. He asked for ten volunteers to go out and face the threat, knowing full well that maybe none of them would come back alive. 30 of his most loyal followers stepped forward without hesitation, including the three who had already risked their lives against the unknown. He chose those three to lead two more men each. Finally, he chose out his best stealth expert for a special assignment.

He knew Voldemort's reputation. This half-blood was the son of Merope Gaunt and a muggle, Tom Riddle. The Gaunts were the insane, arrogant, sadistic, muggle hating last descendants of Slytherin. The maniac would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Perhaps it would be best to leave, to deny Tom his prize by vanishing to the ends of the Earth, but he had never been a coward and he just couldn't resist the temptation to try his wand against someone who had become a legend among dark lords. Just a drop of the invader's blood and he would see who came out on top then.

To the remaining 20 volunteers he said, "I love all of you as I would my own sons. Thank you for your bravery and sacrifice. It is proof of the fierceness of your hearts that you put yourselves in harm's way without a second thought for yourselves. What I ask of you today is harder by far. You must gather up your brothers and your sisters and take them to safety. I and these few will delay that maniac so that you may live. Make haste. I don't know how long we can delay him. Dismissed!"

With that, the 20 scattered and began gathering up their comrades. Within seconds, only the ten volunteers and their lord remained.

He turned to his remaining volunteers, "You will form a three pronged attack from each side and his rear. Your squad leader will shield while the rest of you pummel the intruder with your deadliest spells. Pull no punches. You are not to attempt to take him prisoner. You, Schnyder, will remain concealed. Take careful note of how he fights and report back to me when you have all the intelligence you can gather. The rest of you are to disapparate if he starts to take you out. Remember, the killing curse is a green jet. You cannot dodge it. You cannot shield from it. It can only be blocked by an intervening object or person. If he starts throwing those around, conjure or summon objects to take it for you and get yourselves out of there. We have already lost three good men today. That's three too many. Am I clear?"

The men all replied, "Yes my Lord!", before they all disapparated.

He knew Voldemort was here for more wands. He had heard of the fiasco that had been Germany and how the Guild had bowed before him. But in bowing to Voldemort, Waldhem Meyer had actually shown good judgment. He had been able to prevent the loss of men and at the same time, he had secured a promise from Voldemort that Voldemort would not brand the mercenaries loaned out to him. It was the best deal that they could get from the brutality that was Voldemort. He however had made up his mind to deal with Tom Riddle in a man to man confrontation. He might die but he would not bow to him. His master had not taught him to bow to a foe. He would not do that under any condition.

By the time that battle came, he would know a whole lot more about the way Voldemort fought than the intruder would ever know about him. That plus the wards and just one drop of blood and maybe, just maybe he would have a chance.

**Ministry of Magic**

Alastor Moody was in full drill sergeant mode, pacing back and forth in front of his best Aurors as he briefed them. They all stood at attention, following him with their eyes as he went. It was obvious to everyone present that the Master Auror was in a foul mood today and that did not bode well for what was coming next. They wondered not for the last time that who in their right mind had chosen Alastor Moody to lead them. Alastor Moody was a menace.

"I trust you all know that we are at a crucial point in the war. I have received credible intel that the members of Voldemort's inner circle are going to come out of their hidey hole and take a personal hand in the attacks against us. This is supposed to be a surprise." He adopted a whiney sing-song tone, "They expect that we will suffer massive losses and become terrified." He stopped pacing and glared directly at his troops, "We are not surprised. The only terror that's going to happen is when they see what we've been training to do. You will not take any chances. The moment one of those slime-bags shows up at a battle, your orders are to take them out with extreme prejudice. The only good death eater is a dead death eater." He roared, "IS THAT UNDERSTOOD‼?"

As one the assembled Aurors snapped to attention and shouted, "Yes sir!"

He continued, "In light of our current intel, I am reassigning your squads. With the intensity of battle being kicked up a notch, it is important that we send in our best fighters. All of our best fighters have expressed their interest in going out there and fighting and I am gratified that it is so. Rufus Scrimgeour will lead First squad. He has begged off his supervisor job in favor of remaining in active combat. Proudfoot is in charge of Second squad. He has proved his worth in his service time and again." He turned to Savage, "You, Savage, will lead Third squad." He pointed at another Auror, "Hestia Jones. You get the Fourth squad." He continued, "Vance. You have Fifth squad. You are assigned to undercover surveillance and patrol. Dawlish, you have Sixth squad. You are posted to Hogwarts where you will keep an eye on the castle and the village. All additional squad leaders will be hearing from me as they are assigned."

Alice who was present asked him, "And what will be my role, Alastor?"

Alastor barked, "You will be here at the Ministry as our chief of logistics. You will keep an eye on every operation. You are also a part of our special Ops tactical squad which we have created. You will be sent in only when heavy duty back-up is required. However, you will be on the front line at the final battle."

Sirius asked him, "What about me, Alastor? And you for that matter? How can you restrain yourself from going out where the real action is taking place?"

Alastor barked, "You will be here Black, training the recruits and showing them the ropes. Bartley will be assisting you as was decided. You are also a part of the Special Ops and I would like it if you wouldn't venture out unless the General says so. I am tethered to my job of extracting information and coordinating our men."

With that they were all dismissed while Alastor asked Sirius to stay back. When they were alone, he asked him, "Sirius can I ask a favor of you?"

Sirius nodded, "What is it?"

"Sirius, despite what we say or how we carry ourselves, it is not a secret that we are nowhere close to winning this war at this moment. Until the final battle, we can only wait and while we wait, our losses are mounting. I have seen that Wizards live all over England and many of those came from Muggle born families who live in muggle areas. We can appeal to them to protect themselves and their muggle neighbors with a few protective charms which are quite easy to cast. The problem lies in the fact that Frank does not want them to endanger themselves and that the ordinary folks won't listen to us. But a figure head, that might be a different matter. I figured that if your son were to make such an appeal, it would go a long way toward inspiring people to help each other."

Sirius nodded, "I understand what you are asking, Alastor. I can't speak for the lad, but I will speak to Harry and see if he will help out."

As Sirius was about to leave, Moody said over his retreating back, "Just so you know Black, Bellatrix is very vexed with being kicked off the family tree. She is actively looking for you and your son."

**Unknown Castle**

The inner circle was meeting to decide which of them would be the first to go out.

Bellatrix was presiding, "Who do you propose should be sent on this raid?"

Mulciber Sr. volunteered eagerly, "Let me go. The Aurors have taken my son captive. I know for certain that I won't ever see my son again. I want to avenge him."

Glances were exchanged between Bellatrix and Dolohov before Bella asked, "How do you propose to proceed?"

"I will go to a muggle inhabited area and create mayhem around there. When the Aurors arrive we will kill as many of them as we can before we make our exit."

Bellatrix sneered, "Fool! If we were still going for the shock and retreat strategy, why would we send a member of the inner circle? Whoever goes will be challenging the Aurors before going on to slaughter them. You'd have to show ruthlessness, cruelty and brutality to them to make them fear your name. If you can't do this then don't go at all."

Lucius said, "I want to go. I have scores to settle."

Bellatrix snapped, "You keep your tongue behind your teeth, you worthless animal. You know that the Dark Lord is not pleased with you and will punish you when he returns. You have disappointed him too many times. You have yet to redeem yourself. I sent you to kill two muggles and you returned after having lost two of your companions and only killed one Auror. You have been the cause of more harm than benefit to us."

Dolohov who had been quiet all this while spoke, "I propose that we let Mulciber go and that we send a big concealed contingent with him. When the Ministry responds, we will swat them like flies." He slapped his hand down on the table to make his point and continued, "And in the unlikely event that we do have to retreat, we'll take our accounting of them before we do."

It was agreed that Mulciber would lead the first raid with 19 other wizards. The target they chose was the edge of the woods in Cardiff where there would be enough muggles slaughtered to attract the attention of the Ministry but not many places from where the ministry could attack them. Also with the woods at their back, they could disappear into them.

When the meeting was over, Rabbastan did not waste any time in sending a message to Severus that Mulciber would be leading the first raid two days later. Severus relayed the message to Dumbledore and a trap was being laid to catch Mulciber. For the twenty death eaters, the Ministry intended it to be a death trap which would make them fear the ministry. The same message had been received by the raven haired teen at the Gryffindor table. He shrugged it off. The ministry was more than capable for this.

Alastor called the best warders of the Department of Mysteries to his office and told them of his requirements. He needed some ward masters from the DoM and told them about the general location of the area where they expected the ambush to happen. Their assignment was to remain hidden, out of combat and lay down Anti-portkey and anti-apparition wards around the place which would go up once the death eaters were in. He also assigned the two teams led by Scrimgeour and Proudfoot to the job.

Since the Unspeakables tended to be private individuals and they didn't wear the scarlet robes of the Aurors, they wouldn't be easily recognized. They could even blend in with the muggles if they wished to. In any case, they were under strict orders to make their escape as soon as they had laid the wards. There was bound to be carnage and slaughter. Maybe they would get their hands on some important members of the inner circle.

**Austria**

The forest was ancient and dense with foliage. Trees, both mundane and magical, grew in abundance in the forest around him. Positioning his undead servants to act as shields for him, he continued chewing his way through the wards while keeping his wits about him. He did his best to appear oblivious to the imminent threat, to be far too intent upon his work to have any attention to spare. Although he knew full well that disillusionment and scent masking were ineffective against these foes, he restored the spells anyway to give the impression that he might think himself safe from detection.

He had decided not to use the Killing Curse. Shouting at the top of his lungs while his wand was emitting brilliant, slow moving, green jets was not going to be very useful in this battle. These wizards had already proven that they were hard to impress. Besides, killing them just meant that he would have fewer followers to recruit when the battle was over. But, by the same token, he had to inflict enough mayhem to bring their leader out sooner rather than later.

He heard a rustling sound off to one side. With a movement faster than thought, he shot a blood boiling curse in the direction the sound had come from. The cry in response felt extremely satisfying to him. The next time he felt someone approaching him, he sent a bombarda in that direction. The blast accompanied with a cry told him that he had found his mark.

Believing that his luck had finally turned and he was getting things done his way, he sent a few more curses in different directions. This time, he heard three distinct calls of 'Protego' and he was disappointed to know that his spells had not found their marks this time.

With the exception of where his Bombarda had torn through the undergrowth, the foliage was too thick for him to see the attackers clearly. He kept his senses sharp, taking sound shots at anything that moved. A few of his curses had found their marks, felling creatures, but the ones that would have hit his attackers hit nothing but shields. So far, they had not fired back. Still, this was not good, he was alone, outnumbered and pinned down by the wards. He considered the emergency portkey that he wore. At this range, if it worked at all, it would almost certainly drain him to the point of death. He would only risk using it as a last resort. He had made good progress through the inner wards. Just a few more spells and he would be able to get through, but that wasn't going to happen while the unknowns hiding in the bushes were waiting for an opportunity to pounce. Maybe his efforts at concealment were successful after all. He had also faced an Acromantula which had perhaps thought Voldemort was a tasty snack and had to pay for its foolishness with its life.

The stalemate had been going on for about an hour when he was directly confronted for the first time. About eight wizards appeared around him and five of them shot different curses at him while the other three shielded their comrades. By the time he dodged them the best way he could, they were all gone.

The next moment, he had to fend off three curses coming at him from different directions. While he dealt with those three, he found two more curses from different directions hurling at him. They were attacking him from different directions and not giving him a moment to regroup and think of a strategy. Clearly, the disillusionment charm was not effective since they could find him under it. He could not turn invisible so he could not fool them that way. He had to find them anyway he could.

First, he commanded the undead to go and drag the wizards into the open. Then he remembered another art which he had not practiced for a long time- The art of finding people by their magic. Master Abbadon had told him that every being or beast which was magical had a magical signature and if he could identify it then he could always locate people by their signature. Since he had become Lord Voldemort, he had not practiced this trick as he had never needed it. He was capable of tasting the fear in people, palpable in their body but these people did not fear him. He needed to find them by their magical signatures.

While the inferi created a distraction (the sight of their former comrades attacking them as undead was quite disturbing), Voldemort stretched out his senses, feeling for the sources of power that were the dark wizards he faced. He found nine of them altogether, a pair, two groups of three and another, some distance off, trying to remain hidden. That one by himself would be an observer, he thought, the one who would report back if everyone else was killed. Well, he would have something to report now.

By this time, they had dealt with the undead. With a single non-verbal flip of his wand, the one group of three sported deep slashes across their stomachs. He raised a mage shield which rang like a gong when the answering volley of curses hit it. That was fine. This battle was going to end really soon. Voldemort's next attack was a spell chain with a shield breaker, bombarda and reducto. The group of two was now only one.

The attackers were furious. They wanted Voldemort's head, but they had their orders. With five of their number down already, they disapparated, taking the injured and slain with them. Just to be perverse, Voldemort casually killed the observer with a dark cutter to his neck. He fell from the tree where he had been perched with a final thump. He refreshed his detection wards and set about the final dismantling of the last protection wards.

The fight had been challenging, invigorating really. It felt good to know that his skills were still up to the job. Ruling over his own people required nothing more than a few crucio here and there, the occasional Avada Kedavra against those who did not dare to even try to resist him, but nothing more. This had given him the chance to use his repertoire, devise tactics on the fly and yes, he could still dance.

They had retreated before they died to the last man. That meant that these people did not live in mortal fear of their master. He must actually care about them. If Voldemort was any judge of character, it wouldn't be long before their dark lord came out to confront him personally.

The smell of blood and burnt flesh filled the room as the injured wizards apparated into the sanctum. Out of the ten who had been sent, only two managed to remain unscathed from the battle. They had dispelled the blood boiling curse in the field. That man had survived and even continued to fight until they had to retreat. Of the three who had been slashed, one was dead, but the other two might survive as their lord worked on healing their wounds. There was little left of the two who had been hit with bombarda, but their friends brought their bodies back anyway if for nothing other than to deny the invader more undead. Speaking of which, they had to burn the three undead who had been their companions just to stop their relentless attacks. There was nothing left of them to bring back.

The dark lord took a head count and quickly realized that Schnyder had not returned. When he checked, he found that his link to Schnyder was gone. He asked his men, "What of Schnyder? He was sent to observe. What happened to him?".

His men shook their heads in response. The one who was considered to be senior among them said, "He remained concealed. We never saw or heard from him. We simply don't know."

The dark lord nodded, "Alright then. Tell me of how this invader fights."

In the next few minutes, they recounted Voldemort's efforts to remain concealed, how he had defended against each incoming curse and what measures he had used to detect and attack them. They made sure to also tell of how he had used the corpses of their former comrades against them.

When they were done, their master nodded his head in acknowledgement, "You have done well. I would be proud to call all of you my sons. Now, I must ask a much harder thing of you. You must go. Leave this place and live. I will contact you if I survive."

The men all stared at their master, slack-jawed. Every one of them felt like they had just been punched in the gut. It was Von Pelt who recovered first. He yelled at the men, "What's the matter with you men. You heard our lord. We have to get out of his way so that he can deal with this intruder himself. He can't have us in his way when he's using that kind of magic. Let's get out of here."

The effect was like spraying the men down with an icy-cold fire-hose. They snapped into action. Gathering up their wounded, they all disapparated, not with a bang or a crack, but the simple pop of inrushing air.

About another 15 minutes had passed since Voldemort had sensed any defenders about him. He had tried to raise the observer from the tree, but headless corpses made poor undead. He had, however managed to raise the Acromantula wich was keeping its eight eyes on everything from its perch in the tree canopy overhead while he finished off the last of the wards. He had identified and dispelled the anti-disapparation wards. If this dark lord proved to be too much for him, he could make good his escape. The creatures had stopped attacking. There were no more defenders. The forest was eerily quiet.

After all that patient work, it appeared that he finally had a passage through the wards. One more round of detection spells and he would see if this dark lord was a coward or if he would face him, man to man. It was then that a fiery inferno arrived as a wave from the north direction with a roar of 'fiendfyre' and the undead spider fell to the ground burning like dry tinder. About a minute later, Voldemort came face to face with the elusive dark lord who was about a head taller than him, stockier, brown eyed and his face was obscured by camouflaging charms.

As Voldemort turned his wand on him, the man stood his ground, seemingly unafraid. After ensuring that they were alone, the man turned to him, "What do you want Voldemort?"

Voldemort drawled, "Your life and the loyalty of your men."

The other wizard laughed, "I will neither die easily nor submit to you. On the off chance that you manage to take me down, I promise you that my people, who's undying loyalty I have earned, rather than branding them like cattle, will hunt you down and destroy you with their last breath, but they will never serve you. Although it will profit you nothing, if a fight is what you want, I will be happy to match wands with you."

Voldemort realized that the plan to kill the other wizard and claim the loyalty of his followers was in vain. If he did that, all he would gain was some target practice as he was forced to kill every one of them. No, he would have to subdue this one and force concessions from him to gain anything at all.

He turned to the other man, "Brave words. We shall see if you are still so brave when you beg me to finish you.". Without saying anything more, Voldemort fired a bone breaker at the man. He simply disapparated to appear behind Voldemort where he fired a blood boiling curse. Voldemort side-stepped the spell as he twisted around and replied with a bone breaker. But the other wizard wasn't there anymore. From Voldemort's flank, he banished a brace of daggers at him. Voldemort raised an earth-wall to block them but the other wizard guided one of the daggers over the wall and it pierced the shoulder of the snake man's off arm and stuck there. Hissing with pain and rage, he pulled the dagger from his shoulder, healing the wound instantly and contemptuously tossed the dagger aside. That was the mistake the blood mage was waiting for. He kept Voldemort's head down with a series of Confringos while he quietly summoned the bloodied blade back to him.

Voldemort raised a shield against the weak bombardment and replied with bone breakers intended to disable and cause pain. The other wizard laughed maniacally as the dagger returned to his hand while shielding against the bone breakers. He could see the shining red fluid that would mean defeat for this intruder dripping from the weapon.

"Incendio!", he roared as roaring jets of fire shot from both his hands at Voldemort. Taken by surprise by the two-handed wandless casting, he over estimated the power behind the spells and raised a mage shield again. By the time he realized that the spells were nothing but a distraction, the blood mage was gone again.

For a moment, Voldemort wondered why the other wizard had retreated. He hadn't managed to land a spell on him yet. But, only for a moment because in the next moment, he was reminded of why this dark lord was feared. He screamed in agony as every drop of blood in his body seemed to catch fire at once. Some part of him wondered at the pain, if this was what it was like to be on the receiving end of the Cruciatus curse because as many times as he had used it on others, nobody had ever dared to turn it on him. The blood mage reappeared, holding the bloody dagger which was now glowing with a ruddy light. He made slashing motions and the steaming boiling blood came from fresh wounds on Voldemort's body. This was unfamiliar magic to the half-blood pretender but it looked like a variation of the blood boiling curse and the dark cutter. He knew that if he did not act instantly, his body would be destroyed again.

Seemingly of its own accord, his wand snapped into position and fired a Bombarda at the taller wizard's wand arm. The dagger flew several feet from the man's side as his wand arm was blown to pieces and the man was knocked to the ground.

The relief was immediate. So, this wasn't the Blood Boiling curse, it was some kind of sympathetic magic like the voodoo priests use. It only took Voldemort a few seconds to deal with the wounds across his own chest. In the next moment, he staunched the bleeding from the stump of the other man's arm. Then, with a gleeful grimace, he conjured a cloud of silver vapor and a limb, similar to the hand he had given to Pettigrew attached itself where the man's arm had been.

He summoned the dagger to his hand and promptly tucked it away in his robe muttering, "It would not do to allow you to get a hold of that again."

The other wizard was looking at his arm in wonder, when Voldemort, with the casual cruelty that came so easily to him, pointed his wand and intoned, "Crucio!" He kept the torture going for a good two minutes before he lifted his wand again. To his credit, the other wizard only groaned a bit as the torture seemed to go on and on.

Voldemort turned his slit pupiled eyes on the defeated wizard, "You have fought honorably and well. Lord Voldemort is pleased with your bravery. Commit your followers to my cause and I shall spare you."

The other wizard who was still on the ground grunted, "I never enslave them nor will I let you brand them. If you promise not to enslave them, I will lend you 100 of my men to aid in your war in addition to teaching you the use of blood magic."

**Cardiff**

When Mulciber apparated to the woods near Cardiff, he immediately felt something was wrong. There weren't as many people around the area as there should have been for one. It was too quiet for another. He could feel in his bones that there was something in the air which felt hostile to his skin.

He was mostly surprised because this area of the woods was supposed to contain some muggle activity and he had intended to cause as much mayhem as he could so that it would attract the attention of the ministry but there was nothing in sight to shoot or kill. This ruined their plans!

Suddenly he went stiff as he could feel a ward being raised around them. If it was an area inhabited by wizards, it would not have bothered him but wards around an area frequented by muggles made him suspicious. With a quick detection spell, he quickly recognized there were some anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards around them! He cursed loudly and roared to his men, "Let's leave. We have been betrayed!"

Before he could go however, the Aurors broke cover. Bellatrix and Dolohov had sent about 40 men with him at the last moment so he thought he had enough to destroy the 20 Aurors who were arrayed against him.

He also recognized Rufus Scrimgeour who had his wand pointed at him, "Surrender and you'll live. Resist and it will be the last thing you ever do."

Mulciber growled, "Never" as he let loose with a spell chain of bone breaker, Confringo and Bombarda. He dodged the Auror's attacks as his side-kick shielded for him. As he launched into his two on one attack against Scrimgeour, the death eaters all up and down the line made similar pairings. Bella had been drilling them relentlessly and these weren't a bunch of arrogant incompetents like the ones who had attacked the Ministry just months ago. It looked like the Aurors were holding their own as the battle progressed and one thing was clear, both sides were playing for keeps. The tactic the death eaters were using was steadily wearing the Aurors down. One would attack while the other cast all the dark hexes they knew. Then they would switch and do it all over again. The Aurors continued to shield, dodge and even got off the occasional counter spell but they were going to get worn down at this rate.

In the middle of the battle line, Mulciber engaged Rufus and was keeping him busy with his extensive repertoire of spells. He wasn't a member of the inner circle of the Dark Lord for nothing. He had fought for him in the first war and won many fights. Rufus was a tough Auror but he eventually would give out under the onslaught of his curses and hexes.

Rufus was cautious but unrelenting. He was casting every curse that he knew but Mulciber would often produce a shield that would render his spells ineffective. Also the death eater knew a lot of dark spells which made it hard to fight him. Either he could dodge or risk his life while casting spells at his opponent but Mulciber had no such inhibitions. He was ready to die since he had come to avenge his son and was stopping at nothing. He didn't use the Killing Curse because it would require him to shout at the top of his voice and that would be disadvantageous in a battle.

Rufus was occupied, true, but he was also observing. He quickly realized that none of the death eaters were dodging. "Rookie mistake", he thought. Things were about to turn for the worse for the death eaters, "Attack pattern Beta!", he roared. The results were instant and gratifying. The death eater's shields shattered almost as if they had been one shield and the death eater numbers were halved as the first volley of spell chains led with the shield breakers cut through their ranks. A couple of Aurors went down as the demands for concentrating to do spell chains caused them to forget to dodge momentarily.

The death eater who had been shielding for Mulciber died a sudden and grizzly death as Rufus' spell chain shattered his shield, blew a fist-sized hole through his chest then removed his head. Rufus neatly side-stepped the dark-gray jet that Mulciber shot at him.

The next volley wasn't nearly as effective as the death eaters were forced to dodge or raise stronger shields. Only a few of them went down. Their two to one advantage had disappeared in moments. They were being more cautious now.

Around them, the death eater numbers were waning. Mulciber knew it would not be long before he joined his son in the next big adventure. There was no way he could call for backup. Maybe it was the end of his servitude to his Lord however he wouldn't die before he killed Rufus Scrimgeour. Holding nothing back, he let loose with a volley of curses so foul that they made the air reek with their passing. Rufus showed that he could dance. None of the spells touched him.

Suddenly, there was a battle call emanating around him and Rufus felt hopeful. But it was not the Aurors. It was 30 more death eaters and what was worse, Bellatrix Nameless was leading them.

Mulciber rallied almost instantly. He didn't know how Bella had figured out that he needed back-up but need it he did. There she was, charging in from beyond the wards, creating mayhem in her wake. In desperation, the Aurors hurled wide-area stunners and Bombarda maxima among their ranks, thinning them, but not stopping them. With the numbers about 45 to 18, the Aurors were in a worse position than they had been at the start of the battle. Dolohov engaged Proudfoot and two others. He cackled maniacally as he dared them to try and hit him.

There was a guttural cry followed by maniacal laughter which distracted Rufus for a moment. That felt fatal to him. Mulciber hit him with a black lung curse which he didn't see in time and fell to the ground. If he didn't receive medical care in time, he would die.

Proudfoot who had seen Rufus fall, managed to send a patronus to Alastor at the Ministry before he engaged the death eaters hoping that help would arrive before all the Aurors were dead. The Death Eaters had outsmarted them.

When Moody received the news, he barked orders to the Aurors in the Ministry to move out immediately to go to the aide of their brethren. He also knew they would lose precious time because of the wards. They would have to apparate to the edge of the wards and then go in on foot. The Unspeakables would have already left so he could not ask them to take down the wards.

**Hogwarts**

Harry and Neville were practicing sword fighting in the room of requirement by themselves since it was past curfew hour. Hermione and Ron were on their Prefect Patrol and Hannah and Susan were in their dorm. It had been some time since they had practiced sword fighting and Harry was itching to touch his blade again. He had been fighting for about 10 minutes now and Neville held his own against him.

Suddenly, the door of the room flew open and Severus Snape charged in, looking worried. It was clear that he had arrived there at a run. He was panting heavily. He wheezed, "Harry. the Aurors. they are being ambushed. Cardiff.".

Harry calmed him down, "Professor, control your breathing and tell me what has happened.".

It appeared the Professor couldn't control his breathing, "I just received news that the death eaters have sent backup to slaughter Aurors in the Cardiff ambush. Some devious plan of Bellatrix no doubt and she herself has gone. Help them."

Harry turned to Neville, "We don't have time to get back up and if we sent a message to others, it will be too late."

Neville's face was hardened, "Harry, we are sufficient for them. We will show them no mercy."

Snape tried to intercede, "Hold on. Just you two can't."

Before he could finish his sentence, Harry had grabbed Neville by the hand and they had disappeared.

Snape ran all the way to Dumbledore's office out of breath, hoping he could send a message to Dumbledore in time before Potter and Longbottom were hurt in their stupidity.

**Cardiff**

Luckily for Harry, the ambush was happening in the same area where he had gone werewolf hunting last term. He remembered the area and his initial plan had been to apparate there and figure out how he could assist the Aurors. He knew the ministry would send backup but he was not about to leave them to their fate. A lot of things could go wrong before the backup arrived.

Back in the fight, Bellatrix was fighting two of the Aurors having already killed two. She was ruthless and it showed in her demeanor. The two fighting her were hardly keeping up against her and she knew that they wouldn't last much longer before her. Tomorrow the Daily Prophet would carry the news that the Dark Lord's trusted lieutenants were still as strong as ever. She and Dolohov had actually made this plan before they decided to send Mulciber. They had prepared for this contingency seeing how the Ministry had been able to surprise them a few times before.

Their scheme was to apparate after a gap of time when the Aurors would be there and fighting. They wouldn't realize the threat before half of them were dead. When she and her fellow death eaters attempted to apparate there she and the others had been bounced off to a distance. She quickly realized that Mulciber and the others with him would be in trouble.

Then they had apparated to the edge of those wards before they finished the rest of the distance running. When they arrived, half of the death eaters were dead or dying while the rest were engaged in losing fights. She had started raining down hexes and curses on the Aurors while Dolohov engaged Proudfoot who had succeeded in sending a message for backup. She decided that they would stay and wait for the backup. May be today was the lucky day that she had been hoping for.

The fight had gone on for a few more minutes when two people emerged in their midst. Both of them had their faces covered with camouflage. They looked like young adults, probably about 20 years of age. She was astonished how they had bypassed the wards but before she could think about it anymore, one of them had beheaded a death eater who had challenged them. Not magic but a gleaming sword.

When Harry arrived in the middle of the battle, he was surprised. He had not expected that they would appear in the middle of the battle but was nonetheless glad. This would save them time. He noticed one of the death eaters near him levelling his wand and with a swift swing of his sword the death eater's head had parted company from his body.

Neville meanwhile had assessed the situation and was already sending curses at those near him when Harry caught his arm and whispered, "You engage Bellatrix. By rights, her head belongs to you. I will see to the rest of them."

True to his word, Harry had sent a cutter at the nearest group of death eaters who could not shield in time and they fell dead. Neville meanwhile was advancing towards Bellatrix, his eyes fiery and storm in his mind. Today was the day that he would avenge himself upon the insane witch.

Harry cast the black mist around him and started the dance of death which nobody present there had ever seen. He was moving so fast that he appeared to be a blur in the black mist. His wand hummed and whistled while curses left it at a rate that was not humanly possible. He would behead one, amputate another's wand arm, blast away another and impale another one. He had his sword in his right hand and his wand in his left. He was casting with both hands as needed and no one was the wiser because of the mist which obscured what he was really doing. The death eaters outnumbered the Aurors at that moment but they had forgotten their wits in front of the terror. Harry was advancing like a hurricane towards them, killing every death eater who happened to be in his way. By the time he paused, there were at least 10 dead in his wake. What nobody's mind could figure out was that he had been casting with both hands- The wand in his left hand and the sword in his right. And that was why it looked more fearsome. Harry was still nowhere near Harsh's level but he was getting there.

The Aurors who were still standing were heartened with the sudden respite that they got. Mustering their strength, they started fighting again. Proudfoot who was fighting Dolohov, was momentarily distracted seeing Harry blaze through the Death Eaters. He would have fallen to the curse which was Dolohov's signature spell but before he could, a powerful bone breaker hex struck Dolohov in the side, nocking him flying. The loud crack announced that a number of his ribs were broken. Even if nothing internal was ruptured, breathing would be a painful experience after that.

Dolohov knew his fight was over. He had never been adept enough at healing to heal himself and continue to fight. Also he was scared. He had felt that way when he and 9 others with him had ambushed the Prewett twins. Fabian and Gideon were demons. They had killed 6 of their numbers before Dolohov got lucky and killed them with his signature curse. At a point of time, the twins were on the verge of finishing him but the superiority in numbers had prevented that outcome. After he had killed the twins, he had felt very brave himself. Since that time, he had never met anyone again who was a warrior of that magnitude but this one had scared him. The bone breaker which should not have been able to break more than a couple of bones had broken several of his bones and threw him to a great distance. He had never met someone with so much power, not even the Dark Lord could do that.

With a lot of trouble, he was able to pull out his emergency portkey. He picked himself up with great difficulty and walked in a direction while activating his portkey. As soon as he was out of the wards, he was whisked away by the port-key before a blasting hex from Proudfoot had struck the place where he had been a moment ago.

In the meanwhile Harry had turned to the other death eaters and was killing whoever tried to stand up to him. The death eaters were scared of him with the way he was dealing with them. None of them tried to challenge him but everyone stepped out of his way. He however was not in a mood to let them go.

Neville on the other hand was clearing his way to Bellatrix. Some of the death eaters tried to stop him but some well placed high powered curses removed them out of the way. He was liberally using his family magic and the death eaters had no answer to his spells. Soon enough, he was nearing Bellatrix when Mulciber Sr. tried to come in his way and Neville coldly said, "Step out of my way or you will die."

Mulciber did not respond with words but sent a blood boiling curse at him however Neville flicked it aside with his wand. Being Dumbledore's apprentice, he was way beyond the talents of this death eater. He might be experienced but Neville was more trained and had learnt under the tutelage of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. He flicked aside his hexes while he walked forward. It looked like Neville was possessed by a power greater than men because nothing could faze him. When he was within striking distance to Mulciber, he pulled out his sword and said in the same cold voice, "I warn you for the last time. Step aside or die."

This time Mulciber did not get a chance to respond. As he made the barest of motions with his wand hand, Neville slashed his sword and it buried itself in his chest. With a thrust, it came out of the other side of his body and Mulciber Sr. was no more.

Neville did not stop to retrieve his sword but walked towards Bellatrix who was still sparring with two Aurors. She looked like she had been playing with them. Neville roared, "Bellatrix Nameless I challenge you to a duel for the wrongs done to me and my family at your hands."

Bellatrix cackled, "And who are you to challenge me, little boy? Has no one ever told you that you don't throw a challenge unless you introduce yourself? If you are beneath my station, I won't sully my hands with your blood."

Neville mocked her, "Station? You? You are a nameless witch without protection of any family magic. Your Lord banished you for bringing infamy to your family while I am heir to an Ancient and Most Noble House. For propriety, I am Neville Longbottom heir of Longbottom, and I challenge you to a duel for the injuries caused by you upon my Lord and Lady. Do you accept?"

Bellatrix was amused, "I will gladly kill you, little boy. I remember how your mother and father writhed while I tortured them. Show me what you've got."

As she finished speaking, Neville had already sent a bone shattering hex at her while she took it on a shield and started raining down on him. She showed why she was considered one of the most dreaded death eaters. She was always moving while she cast and her hexes went in different directions depending upon where Neville would be. Neville remembered Dumbledore's words about such fighters. He had cautioned him that if he faced such duelists, he should not hesitate in raising a shield if he needed to. Also he should not think but keep moving in random directions and never make a pattern which would make it easy to guess for his opponent. Bellatrix was finding hard to actually hit him with him moving in different directions.

As there was a lull in her casting, Neville seized the chance and went on the offensive. He started casting his choice family spells while beseeching his family magic to aid him in this moment. His magic was enveloping him and his wand was a blur. He had cast some of his choicest spells at Bellatrix which made her raise the Protego maxima since constant moving was not really helping with the boy casting in every direction. Unlike her, he was able to study a pattern in her movement and it made it difficult for her to dodge. When she raised the Protego Maxima, she was reasonably certain that she was safe since it required a lot of skill and power to break down such shields. What she didn't know or count upon was Neville's power. With a spell from his wand which hit the shield and sounded like a blast, her shield was destroyed.

Quick movement lengthened her life expectancy as she sent a cutter at Neville who could not dodge in time and it hit him in the shoulder immediately drawing blood. Another cutter soon followed and grazed his cheek, drawing a red line of blood. Neville winced in pain and slumped. Bellatrix was cackling like mad while blood flew freely from Neville's shoulder wound. Harry was worried for his god-brother and was about to step forward to engage her when a subtle movement of Neville's finger made him stop. He was tricking Bellatrix!

As Bellatrix walked forward carelessly taunting Neville, he suddenly whipped his wand up and shot a curse which flew through her body. There was a large hole where several important parts of her body, including her lower spine, had been just a moment ago. Her eyes spread wide in shock and horror as her body slumped to the ground.

Neville walked up to her body and started stabbing it with a dagger before Proudfoot pulled him away, "Lad, she's dead. She's dead. You won."

It was then that Moody appeared with the back up to find that all the death eaters were dead already and Neville standing near Bellatrix's dead body. His mouth fell open in shock. He exclaimed, "What happened here?"

Proudfoot who noticed him rushed to him, "Good that you are here. Many of our men are injured and need immediate attention. Rufus was hit with a Black Lung curse. He'll die if not tended to."

Harry who had bear hugged Neville first before tending to the cut on his shoulder over-heard the last part of the conversation. He turned to Proudfoot, "Where is he? Show him to me. I can help."

Proudfoot opened his mouth to say something before Moody barked, "Do as he says, Proudfoot."

About 5 minutes later, Harry had countered the curse but they still needed to move him to St. Mungo's where he would recuperate. Harry turned to other Aurors who were grievously wounded and was treating them when healers from St. Mungo's arrived and started tending to the Aurors.

Meanwhile Moody was talking to Harry and Neville, "How did you two come here?"

Harry smirked, "Told you, the Order of the Snow leopard has its ways. I would appreciate it if none of these would speak about our identity to anyone. I want to keep it a secret for now."

Moody nodded, "I understand that lad but Neville should tell the General about what he has done. He would be hurt if he heard about it from anyone else."

Neville nodded, "I will talk to them later and tell them myself. I am not afraid to own up to my actions."

Moody was extracting a promise from all the Aurors that they would never speak about the identity of their savior. If any of them did, they would face Moody's displeasure. As for the death eaters, they would be lucky if they survived Alastor's torture which would follow soon.

About 5 death eaters had survived the battle. Moody knew he would be giving them hell for the 15 deaths that they had caused. 15 good men had died today and someone would be accountable for it.

Before Harry could leave however Fawkes flashed in with Dumbledore who looked grim and had his wand out. His eyes did not have the usual twinkle in them but devoid of any warmth and felt like cold abyss. Seeing the look in those eyes, Harry realised for the first time why the Death Eaters had feared Dumbledore. He however relaxed visibly when he found that the battle was over and that Harry and Neville were both safe.

His concern was obvious from the tone of his voice, "I didn't expect you both to be so reckless, Harry and Neville. You should have at least waited for me. What would I have told Frank, Alice, Sirius and Remus if something happened to the two of you?"

Harry said somberly, "Professor, it was important for us to rush here to save these men. I am sorry if I didn't stop to think about informing anyone. I was sure that you would know about it soon enough anyhow."

He nodded, "Is either of you injured?"

Harry shook his head, "I am uninjured Headmaster. I am just tired. Neville though took a cutter to his shoulder and cheek. I already patched him up, but I'd feel better if Madame Pomfrey could have a look at him. Could you let us both stay in the hospital wing tonight? I just don't feel like answering a whole bunch of questions right now."

Dumbledore nodded, "I'll take you both directly to the infirmary where Poppy would be delighted to tend to you both." He whistled and Fawkes appeared before them. They caught its tail and disappeared in a flash of fire.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hogwarts**

Susan Bones waited for her boyfriend to come and escort her to the Great Hall as had become the norm. But, he was not there. She and Hannah kept waiting for him and Neville Longbottom to turn up but they didn't.

Susan decided to go to the Great Hall by herself and then sort out her boyfriend who had ostensibly forgot about her. As she was on her way up, she was joined by Daphne and Tracy.

Daphne guessed Susan was angry about something and asked cautiously, "What happened, Susan?"

Hannah replied, "Harry is in for a bad day courtesy of Susie."

Susan glared at her, "As if you're going to let your boy-friend get away with it."

Tracy pacified both of them, "Stop sniping at each other. Tell us what's happened?"

Hannah answered, "Generally, Harry and Neville escort us to the Great Hall every day. But today we can see no sign of them."

Daphne snorted, "What? Can't you walk up there by yourself?"

Susan grinned, "I shouldn't have to. Not when he is always so sweet and considerate.

Tracy sighed, "Don't make us jealous Bones."

They arrived at the Great hall to find their friends sitting at the Ravenclaw table. They joined them. When their other friends noticed that Harry and Neville were not among them, Hermione got worked up, "Susan where's Harry? For that matter, where's Neville?"

Susan sighed, "I was hoping that you would know where your best friends are."

Hermione's brows were furrowed, "What do you mean? I haven't seen them since last night. When Ron and I returned from the Prefect patrol, I retired to my dorm. When I woke up this morning, they weren't there. I assumed that they were out running."

Susan turned to Ron who had just put an entire egg in his mouth and asked him, "Where are your friends, Ron?"

Unlike the Ron of past years, he took the time to chew and swallow while he considered his answer. After he finished swallowing, he turned to her, "When I returned to the dorm, I didn't go probing into their beds. They have all sorts of wards around their beds, you know. I've learned the hard way not to go poking around when they're sleeping. I was tired and went to sleep. Like Hermione said, I also thought they were out this morning."

Susan sighed, "It's not like them to sleep in. I'm guessing that neither of them is in bed and therefore, they're both missing and nobody's looking for them. What do you reckon we should do?"

Daphne who was looking towards the doors of the Great Hall said, "We don't need to do anything. They're here."

They turned to see Harry and Neville walking into the Great Hall. Susan tried to leap from her seat to go and pummel him but Hannah held her back, "Don't do it unless you want to end up in detention. We'll deal with them later."

Harry approached them with a very sweet smile, slipping into the seat which Hannah vacated for him. Giving Susan a peck on the cheek, he asked her, "What are we talking about, Sue?"

Daphne answered, "Susan is angry that she didn't get her daily dose of pampering this morning."

Harry, looking to the owls that had begun to fly into the Great hall, said cryptically, "I'll explain everything, right after you get a chance to look at the Daily Prophet."

Hermione asked him suspiciously, "What's in the Daily Prophet?"

Neville said mysteriously, "we don't want to ruin your surprise."

The owls began landing in front of the students and all along the staff table. Hermione already had the knuts ready. She placed them in the pouch and grabbed the paper with such haste that the owl hooted in protest. As she spread the paper out on the table, the other students looked on to see the grizzled face of the Master Auror glaring out at them.

_**"75 DEAD IN BATTLE AT CARDIFF**_

_In a press release issued by the ministry late last night, it has been informed that the infamous and dreaded witch known as Bellatrix Nameless was killed in a duel with an unidentified wizard during a failed ambush in Cardiff forest last night. When the fighting was over, sixty death eaters and 15 Aurors lay dead. Three of the Ministry Aurors, including Rufus Scrimgeour are in critical care at St. Mongo's but are expected to make full recoveries._

_Acting on an anonymous tip, ministry forces composed of 20 Aurors, led by Rufus Scrimgeour and Proudfoot, moved to prevent an attack on muggles in the area. Death eater forces showed up with double their number. Undaunted, the Aurors held their ground and reduced the enemy forces to even the odds. That was when 30 death eater reinforcements, led by Bellatrix nameless and Antonin Dolohov arrived, turning the tide of battle again in their favour._

_In the confusion, Mulciber Sr. managed to hit Rufus Scrimgeour who he was battling with a Black Lung curse and took him out of the fight. With the numbers at 45 to 15 for the death eaters and Senior Auror Proudfoot still in command, it was questionable if the Aurors could hold on until reinforcements could arrive from the Ministry._

_The pivotal moment was when members of the erstwhile unknown Order of the Snow Leopard arrived to help the Aurors. Their timely aid rapidly carved a swath of complete destruction through the ranks of the death eaters. One of them made a bee-line to Bellatrix nameless and challenged her to a duel while the other forces rapidly depleted the ranks of the demoralized death eaters._

_It is not clear how the battle proceeded from that point. By the time reinforcements arrived from the Ministry, Bellatrix nameless along with a total of 59 of the death eaters lay dead. Another nine were captured, none of which were unharmed. Antonin Dolohov, who had been seen at the battle, was not found among the prisoners or the bodies of the dead and is believed to have escaped._

_According to eye witnesses, Bellatrix nameless had been challenged according to the ancient ways. She gave a good accounting of herself, having killed two Aurors before she was challenged and defending herself until she succumbed to a spell that is not taught at the Auror academy._

_When asked about the battle, Master Auror Moody responded, 'It was all over by the time I got there. You won't be able to interview anyone tonight. They're all either having their injuries attended to or they're in debriefing.'_

_Another source who requested to remain anonymous said, 'It's more than my job's worth if they find out I talked to you. All I'll say is that I've never seen anything like the way they fought. There's no doubt that they saved our bacon tonight._

_One thing nobody is talking about is just who is the order of the Snow Leopard? How many of them are there? How did they know to show up when and where they did? Do we have new dark wizards on the rise? The Ministry seems to be turning a blind eye toward their activities. If there's any investigation into who they are, this reporter has not detected any sign of it. _

_This also raises questions about the leadership of General Longbottom. We have lost a number of Aurors since you-know-who has come out into the open. If not for the timely intervention of this unknown order, the Ministry would have suffered an ignominious and devastating defeat."_

Thankfully there were no photos of the battle scene in the paper. Harry was sure that most of the people would have been nauseous and squirming with the gruesome photo of Bellatrix's dead body missing most of her vital organs. It certainly would have made most of them throw up.

When everyone was done reading, Harry found that most of them were looking at him and Neville. Fred however asked him, "Harrikins, what happened to Dolohov?"

Harry said offhandedly, "I heard that he got most of his ribs stove in. Somehow, that coward managed to get away. No worries, he will die next time."

George interrupted, "Sorry Harrikins but our family owes him some payback."

Harry let it go because he knew there was no use arguing about it. If Dolohov ran into him on any of his raids, Harry was going to put him down with extreme prejudice.

Susan growled at him, "You promised that we would be at each other's side the next time you went on one of these missions."

Harry tried to calm her down, "Sue." She however waved him off, "Don't patronize me Harry. We want to help you end this war but you keep leaving us behind."

Neville tried to speak, "Susan…"

He had to shut up when Hannah glared at him, "Don't speak a word, Neville. We deserved to be there."

Daphne decided to rescue them, "You can both fight them later, girls. For now, let them explain."

Ron said in a snarky tone, "Yeah! Let them explain how the last resort backup for the ministry forces ended up killing Bellatrix Nameless and so many death eaters because as far as I know, none of our own accompanied them."

Harry sighed, "Ron, you do realise how many I can deal with at once? By myself I don't have to worry about the safety of my friends. Neville, as Dumbledore's apprentice and heir of Longbottom has learned a lot of spells which we won't find in our books. We were practicing in the Room of Requirement last night when we received an urgent message that the Ministry forces were being ambushed. You both were on Patrol duty. I had no time to search for you and ask you to join me. Time was of the essence so I took Neville with me when I went out. In doing so we saved at least 5 lives. I wouldn't have been at peace with myself if any delay had cost so much as a single life. Also I had no time to stay and outline a plan. Thanks to our long hours of practicing together, Neville understood what we had to do."

When he was done speaking, Hermione got that mulish expression before she spoke up, "From this time forward, Harry Potter, you are going to take us with you. We have learned enough spells and how to use them. Now it's time we show what we can do."

"Mr. Peverell and Mr. Longbottom, the headmaster wants to see you both in his office after breakfast. The password is 'toffee éclairs'", said Professor Flitwick who had just come up to them.

Well, that was convenient. It was best to get going right away since it wouldn't do to keep the headmaster waiting and arguing with Hermione was slightly less enjoyable than one of Snape's detentions.

**The Unknown castle**

When Dolohov opened his eyes, he could not remember how he got there. It took him a few seconds before he could focus his eyes and it all started to come back to him. He remembered the battle, how he was about to kill Proudfoot when a massive bone breaker took him out. Just the memory of the spell made him wince.

When he attempted to sit up, the entire right side of his chest quickly convinced him that this was a bad idea. He noticed that Rudolphus was before him and his eyes were bloodshot and he seemed to have been crying. He had bags under his eyes and Dolohov surmised that he had not slept properly last night. He was however puzzled as to why he would cry. As far as he remembered, Rudolphus was not one to cry. Perhaps something bad had happened.

He turned to him, "Lestrange, what happened?"

Rudolphus started speaking while his voice hitched, "Bella. Bella was killed."

Dolohov couldn't believe his ears, "What was that? I couldn't have heard you right. I thought you said that Bella was killed."

"You heard right, Antonin. Bella was killed last night", said Lucius Malfoy who had just entered the infirmary. The Malfoy lord tossed a rolled up newspaper to him which he fumbled to his chest with his left hand. The headlines made him drop the newspaper.

Malfoy drawled, "Since you are the only one who came back, we were hoping you could tell us what happened there?"

Dolohov frowned in concentration, "It was an ambush. The ministry knew we were coming. They had made their preparations. When we arrived, we were bounced off by anti-apparition wards that were in place. By the time that we managed to enter the battle, we found that about half of the death eaters were already dead with Mulciber having just hit Scrimgeour with a Black lung curse. Proudfoot had already sent a message calling for backup. We decided to finish off the remaining Aurors then wait to kill the back up when they arrived. That was when two wizards arrived in our midst, bypassing the wards."

Malfoy asked in amazement, "Two wizards? Just two?"

Dolohov shuddered, "They were no ordinary wizards. I could literally feel the power radiating off them. One of them had a sword that he used to behead one of the men before anyone could blink. Then he did something that I've never seen before. He attacked like a whirlwind, mostly cloaked in a shroud of dark mist, casting spells with the wand in his left hand while attacking with the sword in his right. Our people could barely even see him, never mind hitting him with any spells. All that any of us could do was stay away from him, but even that didn't help much. I tried to finish off Proudfoot so that I could take him on myself. That was when he hit me with a bone breaker that took me out. MY last conscious act was to activate my emergency portkey. If it hadn't worked, I would have been captured too."

"You had 10 broken ribs and a punctured lung when you were brought here, Mr. Dolohov. We were able to mend most of your injuries before you came around. I expect that you'll be sore for a couple of days, but no permanent damage was done.", said the healer from the other side of the bed, "Now if you will hold still for a few moments, I will finish my work before I let you go. Otherwise you will stay here until your busted ribs heal naturally." He muttered to himself as he worked, "Don't know what did this. Looks like you were hit by a muggle lorry…"

Lucius dragged Rudolphus away, "Come on Lestrange, we need to figure out what to do."

Soon, the remaining members of the inner circle were sitting for a meeting when an owl arrived with a letter from Severus for Lucius. Lucius opened the letter and frowned when he was done reading it. Wordlessly he passed the letter to Rudolphus who started reading it.

_"Lucius,_

_The old fool suspects my loyalties and has been keeping a close eye on me. He has forbidden me from going out of the castle for the time being. I am unable to leave without arousing suspicion. I fear that in Bella's absence the onerous task of looking after the faithful must fall to you and the others. I will try to get away from here when I can._

_Recently, the Order of the Phoenix has been talking about this Order of the Snow Leopard and the probable members. What we know for sure is that none of the members of the Order of the Phoenix are involved in this. They are all too straight laced to show such brutality in battle. _

_I will keep fishing for their identities while I am here. If I were you, I would start making plans to avenge Bellatrix and Mulciber Sr. I know it may sound strange to you but Bellatrix was our comrade and I will not feel better until she is avenged._

_I have also found that there is a spy in our midst who is passing information to the ministry and the Order of the Phoenix. At this time, I have no clue about his identity. I am working on finding his identity and when I do, I will kill him and send his head to the ministry as a gift._

_Severus Snape."_

Rookwood who was present in the meeting grumbled, "What do you all propose we do? I mean we can't let the ministry think that they got to us with Bellatrix and Mulciber gone."

Rudolphus shook his head, "No. We will avenge her. Tonight we will do raids on Muggle London and cause as much havoc as we can. Kill indiscriminately and kill anyone who dares to stand in our way."

Unfortunately Rabbastan was not present in the meeting. That meant that the Ministry would not receive any advanced notice of the raid. The ministry would be on its own. The Death Eaters also had no way to contact the dark lord while he was abroad without summoning him through the mark. They knew they would get a message from him if he sent one but only Bellatrix knew the way to contact him if needed. With her dead, none of them wanted to risk his anger by summoning him through the dark mark when they knew that he was working to gain more men on his side.

**Ministry of Magic**

"Alastor report", Frank said grimly. He and Moody had just returned from St. Mungo's after meeting Rufus and the other injured Aurors. While he was proud of the valour of his men, he was disturbed with the state of Bellatrix's body. As Moody had predicted, he at once recognised that she had been killed with his favourite signature spell and arrived at the conclusion that she was killed by his son. Alice was at the Manor at the time of the ambush and there was no one else who could know that spell. He never wanted children to participate in the war but to his consternation, it appeared that children would be fighting in the war anyway. He had tried to dissuade Harry from fighting but the prophecy and other details made it so that the war could not be won without Harry Potter. He then focused on trying to prevent other children from being engaged in the war but it would not be so.

Alastor snapped to attention, "We were outnumbered and outwitted by Bellatrix last night. As per the Intel received I had sent sufficient Aurors. If they hadn't added to their plan and sent more death eaters, we would have come out on top. Alas, our sources didn't hear about that in time. We were facing a total loss. Out of the nine death eaters who were caught yesterday, four are alive and well to face justice. The other five succumbed to their injuries last night."

Frank raised an eyebrow at him, "when are you going to tell me about the identities of the members of the Order of the Snow Leopard?"

Moody muttered, "I already told you. I have sworn an oath not to disclose their identities."

Frank smirked, "I already know Alastor."

Moody nodded, "Even if that's true, general, I can't confirm or deny anything."

**Headmaster's Office**

When Harry and Neville entered Dumbledore's office, they found him looking solemn and lost in thought. As they approached, he offered them chairs and waited for them to speak.

When it became apparent that none of them were going to speak Dumbledore took the initiative, "I haven't called you here to berate you or to admonish you for your decision to run off and fight the death eaters. I know how hard it is to kill someone and to live with that feeling. I called you both here because I wanted to know how you are dealing with it. If either of you needed any assistance or words of comfort I am ready to do that."

Neville said in grim determination, "Thank you for the offer headmaster. I know what I did yesterday. I do not repent it. I know that to take a life is a grim business. The alternative, however, was to allow that insane witch to go on killing or be killed myself. I plan to live to a ripe old age, surrounded by family and friends. Anyone who thinks they're going to change that plan is in for a rude surprise. I knew what this was when I signed up and I do not shrink from my duty now."

Harry grinned ferally, "I have the same sentiments as Neville does headmaster. We do not enjoy killing however we do what we have to. We are not allowing them to kill anyone who is dear to us. I know you are concerned that we might have started to love killing but I can assure you that none of us enjoy doing it. As I already told you we are doing what we can to minimize our losses and to bring an end to this war as soon as possible."

Dumbledore nodded, "I understand that, my boy. And along those lines, have you found any clue about the location of the last horcrux?"

Harry shook his head, "Other than what I've already told you, no headmaster. I saw the image in Tom Riddle's mind of the Tiara in a huge Cathedral like room that was full of junk. Other than that I have no idea about it. I was hoping that you could figure it out."

Dumbledore sighed, "I'm at the end of my rope in this matter. I have tried everything to find its location but could not. I wanted to bounce a few ideas off you both to see if there's something that we can come up with."

Neville nodded, "Go ahead headmaster we are listening."

Dumbledore closed his eyes as if thinking over something and took a few moments before he started speaking, "You see, Tom liked to collect trophies since he was a little child. In the orphanage where he lived, he would steal whatever caught his fancy from other children. He would bully them. It looks like he never changed. As you both can see, all the objects that he made into horcruxes were of historical importance or fanciable or dear to him. First his diary then the Ring with the Peverell coat of arms followed by objects, artefacts belonging to the founders. Similarly if you would observe, all the horcruxes were hidden at places which were related to him in one way or another. For instance the cave where we destroyed inferi, a vault in Gringotts, the shack belonging to the Gaunts which is his ancestral home. He was also fascinated with the castle in the same way you both were when you arrived at Hogwarts for your first year. You Harry came here out of the shadow of the muggles who had spent their lives telling you that you were worthless and you found a home in the castle. Neville, you were raised under the strict upbringing of Augusta Longbottom and when you arrived at the castle it was the first time that you were allowed to be a child your age. Just like you both countless of witches and wizards have found a home in the castle and among them was Tom Marvolo Riddle. Taking everything together, I suppose that one of the horcruxes is hidden at the castle. What I don't know is how Tom found the diadem of Ravenclaw or when he had the opportunity to hide it at the castle. I hope you will both think it over it and maybe find the solution to our predicament.". When Dumbledore fell silent, Harry and Neville both waited for a time to see if he would speak again.

Harry asked him, "Was there anything else that you wanted to talk about headmaster?"

Dumbledore nodded, "The General wanted to talk to you both therefore I have asked you to be here. He will be flooing here in a few minutes with Lady Longbottom who I am sure is worried about you."

As if on cue the floo roared and Frank stepped out of the fireplace followed closely by Alice. She hugged both the teens fervently for a few minutes, clutching them tightly as if they would disappear.

After she let go of them, Frank fixed a stern glare on them, "What do the two of you have to say for yourselves?"

Frank never raised his voice, but it was clear from his tone that they were getting a dressing down from Lord Longbottom and they'd best give a good accounting of themselves.

Harry did his best to look innocent and with his skill at Occlumancy, it should have worked, "Whatever do you mean, Lord Longbottom?"

Frank said not a word but continued to let his glare bore into his son and heir. After a few minutes, Neville straightened up and looking directly into his father's eyes, said, "My lord, I avenged our family upon the mad witch Bellatrix nameless for the injuries she inflicted upon the house of Longbottom. I will gladly present myself for any punishment you may see fit."

Frank shook his head, " I'm not about to punish you, my son. According to the ancient law, you were within your rights to do so. What I'm concerned about is that you had to kill. If it were up to me I would have forbidden children from participating in the war. But I know that you and Harry were both probable children of prophecy therefore you would fight the war irrespective of what I did or said. Also as they say where a Potter goes a Longbottom will follow so I understand why you would not stay behind while your God brother goes out to fight this war. I can only tell you two to be safe and not to be reckless. Being vigilant is what saved me and Alice during all those encounters with Voldemort. I know you both are well learned, powerful and have access to some ancient magic but remember that it takes only one spell, one moment's inattention to change the course of a battle. Again I say, stay safe and do not take unnecessary chances. We all care for you."

After Frank was done having his say, Alice took her turn, "As Frank has already said what needed to be said, I will only add that we are proud of you both and we will always stand beside you no matter what."

Harry hugged her tightly, "And I assure you that we will never let you down. You have trusted us without a word and we will never let that trust be broken."

**The room of requirement**

The students were practicing spell chains which they had been working on since the start of the term. Most of them could use spell chains of the most commonly used spells. A few had mastered those and were working on more difficult ones for greater effect and variety. Predictably Hermione was one of those who could put complex spells together in a chain. So could Ronald. In fact all of those who had been taught by Mad-Eye during the summer were way ahead of their peers.

"Hey Harry", said Justin, "when will we be using these spells that we are learning? I mean it is all good that we are getting really good against practice dummies but when do we go up against the real thing?"

Harry took in what Justin was saying. It was time to give the students some perspective, "Alright, everyone! Listen up!"

The room went silent as the students stopped casting spells and turned their attention to Harry. He began solemnly, "Justin just asked me when we get to go up against the real thing. The answer I want to give is that if I get my way about it, none of you will ever be exposed to that kind of danger.". He watched the faces of his fellow students for a while. Some registered the gravity of what he was saying but others still looked like they were spoiling for a fight. He continued, "As you know, I have been up against real death eaters and even Voldemort himself. I'm watching you all the time during practice. I dare say that most of you could hold your own against one of them. They aren't that well trained or disciplined. But you've got to know that if you're ever fighting one of them for real, they don't fight fair and they do fight to kill." He let that sink in for a moment before he continued, "I know what you're thinking, 'Why are we bothering to train if we're never supposed to fight? Am I right?'" He watched as many of the students nodded in agreement, then went on, "As stated from the outset, those of you who trained with Master Auror Moody last summer will recall, we were never supposed to be front line soldiers. As I told all of you when I agreed to train you, you are never supposed to be front line soldiers. We are training here because, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you must fight, I want to give you every chance possible to get out of it alive." He waited just a breath while his words sank in. Then he let them all off the hook, "Having said that, I realize that firing spell chains at practice dummies is not preparing you as well as I would like. Choose yourselves partners and pair off for some dueling practice."

With some general shuffling, the students quickly paired off. Harry gave them some more instruction, "We only have so much space here, so I want you to duel four pairs at a time while the rest of you watch and learn from the people who are dueling. Try to be creative. Keep your partners guessing. If they like shielding, use shield breakers. If they like dodging, try wide area spells or, even better, try to predict where they will move next and hit them where they least expect it."

With that, the first four pairs bowed in and started dueling. The other students moved between the duels, picking up pointers as they went. Harry, Susan, Neville, Hannah, Ron, Hermione and the twins marked the students practicing. If they thought that they needed improvements or instructions, they got some tutoring. Since they had all learned to duel last term, they were to use only spell chains. Every three minutes, Harry called a halt and had the next teams duel.

After about an hour, Harry signalled them to stop casting, "Alright there is another thing I want to talk about. I know you have all read the newspaper. I suppose that you are hungry for information. It is true that the Order has been helping the ministry. We only go out in those cases which otherwise look hopeless. We don't interfere if the Aurors have it under control. We did this by asking our elves to alert us as soon as any attack is taking place. Then we respond. We have made teams for this purpose. I would advise you to ask your elves to alert you about any such attack. You are to immediately send a message to me or to Neville or Daphne or Ernie or Conrad or the Twins and help will be given. For now we are going to see how you will do with spell chains against an experienced fighter. Form groups of three among yourselves. Then I will give you a person who will duel with you to give you the experience of duelling with spell chains."

Soon they all were divided into teams of three. Harry started naming fighters. He named Hermione, Ron, Neville, Susan, Ginny and the twins.

The group to practice with him were Slytherins who started attacking him at once. They were casting all the spells that they could think of. He effortlessly danced out of the way of the spells. He kept watching them for a few minutes to see how they were faring with casting spell chains at him. He noticed that two of them were not very fluent with chains. He stunned them without any trouble and then motioned for the last one to stand down.

His friends were having similar experiences. The twins were simply using prank spells upon their opponents who couldn't think of an appropriate response to their attack. Hermione was having a little trouble but she was able to defend against three at once. Ron was fighting with determination and didn't stop to let them breathe. His opponents could not even cast properly before he would be upon them. Neville was trying to enjoy and would even give tips to his opponents to improve their casting. Susan was blazing her way through the spells of her opponents and they could not hold their own against her. Harry could feel her anger seeping through her casting and decided to talk to her after the session was over.

After about 20 minutes he stopped everyone, "Alright that was enough practice for today. We will continue next session along with working on shields. Sometimes shields can be useful and you must know them."

After everyone was on their way, he asked Susan to stay back. When the room was empty, he asked it to produce the setting of the manor in Ireland. He pulled her in his embrace and fell onto one of the sofas.

Her demeanour showed that she was still angry with him and he sighed, "Sue, why are you not talking to me?"

She poked him hard in the chest, "You know full well why I'm not talking to you."

He shook his head, "No, I don't know. Please enlighten me."

She took a deep breath before going on a rant, "Did you even think for a moment how worried I would be if you didn't return? This war is turning bloodier day by day. We are losing people. People are dying out there and you are risking your life yet you don't ask me to come with you. Harry we had promised to stand with each other."

He kissed the side of her head, "Sue, of course I think about it. I want this war to end soon so that we can go on with our lives. You think I don't care about it? I also want Tom gone so that I can have a peaceful life. I know there is no normal life for me but I can still hope for some peace. I want to end this war soon without seeing anyone hurt or killed. I can't stand the thought of living without you."

She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him deeply, "Harry, the same way we want you to stay safe. I would die if something were to happen to you."

Harry decided to take her away from the topic since it was getting gloomy, "Sue, have you thought about what we are going to do immediately after the war?"

She took a minute before answering, "I guess we'll take a long vacation. Probably a month or so. I want to see Paris. Fleur told me that it is supposed to be the most romantic place."

He nodded, "I'd like that. I haven't been to see any place except the trip I took last summer. I would like to go to places as a visitor, not having to look over my shoulder all the time."

She nodded, "That would be a relief. But for the more immediate future, I would like to know what your plans are for Valentine's Day?"

Harry had no idea about it, "Sue, I haven't celebrated Valentine's Day like ever. The only experience I have with it was second year."

She scrunched her forehead in thought before she remembered, "You mean the dwarves who were dressed as cupids? Didn't they have a valentine message for you?"

Harry shuddered, "Please don't remind me. I wanted to hide in embarrassment."

She snorted, "it wasn't that bad, Harry. I remember it was a rhyming couplet and everything. Who was it from by the way?"

Harry shook his head frantically, "I'd rather not talk about it."

She grinned, "Finally I got under your skin with something. However I am telling you in advance, we are going to the village together Valentine's Day and we're going to have fun."

He nodded meekly, "Yes dear."

**Muggle London**

The last week had been peaceful for the Aurors as the death eaters had ceased from attacking Muggle London. But they knew that after Bellatrix was killed that the death eaters would retaliate. Therefore Moody was being careful. He had put more people on duty to look for any suspected magical activity across the length and breadth of England.

It was lunch hour and the foot traffic in Coventry Garden outside the Rules restaurant was getting intense. That was when a group of men wearing cloaks and robes arrived suddenly in their midst wielding sticks. They started shooting coloured lights from their sticks while shouting nonsense words. Within seconds, about 10 muggles lay dead with several more injured. Some had their bodies bent at impossible angles, some had their flesh rotting and some were showing other equally gruesome injuries. The muggles scrambled to get under cover while the slaughter continued for about another 2 minutes. When another group arrived wearing matching deep red robes, they formed a line in pairs with the one in front down on one knee while the one behind stood and fired their coloured chains of lights from behind them. The first group of robed figures immediately fired what looked like a macabre firework into the air and disappeared.

Outside the Everyman Hamstead that evening, the scene repeated itself. There was crowd lined up to see the new release "Broken Arrow", a thriller about the theft of nuclear weapons across the pond. The would be movie goers fled in panic as the first of them died from whatever it was those robed people were firing at them. Some were injured sporting gruesome injuries. Here also, the attackers were clothed in robes and cloak and were gone before the red robed wizards could retaliate.

A police car was torched in Yorkshire killing two police men inside. When the people gathered around to see if they could help, most of them were killed by men clothed in robes and masks. Here also the death eaters placed the dark mark in the sky and fled when the Aurors arrived.

Similarly, muggles were attacked at many places and there were too many casualties before the Aurors could intervene. The Ministry had started sending out Aurors as soon as the first incident occurred and within 30 minutes all the Aurors were out on field duty with the Obliviators. St. Mungo's had brought in all of their on-call healers to help treat the muggles who were being brought in. The treatment rooms and wards filled up fast, forcing the healers to deal with the overload in the corridors. Any patients who could crawl were released to make more room. Never before, not even during the last war, had the death eaters inflicted so much random mayhem on the muggle people of Britain. If this trend continued, it was feared that St. Mungo's would have to look for more land to expand their services and call for help from neighbouring countries. They did not have enough healers.

The condition was so grim that even the General had to go out and help the Aurors. However his presence had motivated the troops who worked with more vigour and tried to thwart the attacks with more efficiency. They managed to get their response time down to less than 30 seconds.

With the Aurors dispatched to every corner of Wizarding and Muggle Britain, the death eaters decided that it was time to make their move. Their real target this evening was Green Hues, the residence of the house of Longbottom. They knew that the house was guarded by wards developed by the unspeakable and it was entirely likely that they were deadly. Rookwood howeer believed that a ward destroyer would be able to cause substantial damage to the wards and bring them down. He was eager to test that theory. The remaining members of the inner circle however had forbidden him from leaving the Castle as he was important to their plans. They had dispatched a 10 member team to the Longbottom residence and they were hopeful of success.

When the Death Eaters arrived at Green Hues, Augusta Longbottom was the only one home. Before they launched their attack, they took the precautions of laying anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards around the place and disconnected the floo connection so that none could escape that way. She heard the wards chime and realized that the death eaters had come calling.

She was old but she was not called the Battle-axe for nothing. She was one extremely able witch who could still deal with scum like these as if she were taking a walk in the garden. She readied her wand while signaling her elves to go to the ministry and ask for help.

**The sanctuary of the Mermaid**

In the Sanctuary of the Mermaid, Hannah was having a conversation with Neville. He was usually a very laid back guy who never tried to assert his will so it was easy for her to guide him around.

Usually she tried to show some form of physical comfort to him like mussing his hair or playing with her fingers in his hand but today she was looking at him as if she pitied him.

When she did speak it sounded like she was trying to mind her words, "Neville, I am angry that you went without me to fight this war. I'm also so sorry that you had to kill. I know killing someone is not an easy business and you would hate yourself or something but I want you to know that I stand with you now and forever."

He hugged her, "Han, You know that I never wanted to kill anyone. But sadly, the duty to put down that mad witch, the torturer of my parents, fell to me and I will not ever shirk my duty. The life of every single person she would have killed if I had let her live would have been my fault. I know you understand. I could not, would not leave it to anyone else. And when it comes down to it, I will likely have to kill again, if that's what it takes."

Suddenly there was a loud crack heralding the arrival of Slinky, the Longbottom Manor house elf. He was shaking with fright. It took a few moments before he could speak, "Master. Mistress being alone. Manor attacked."

Neville immediately crouched down and hugged the elf while patting its back, "Slinky, you have done well. Go find a couple of Hogwarts elves and bring them here as quickly as you can. Ask for Tweaky and he will lend you as many as you want."

As Slinky popped out, he sent messages to Rupert and Michael, "Be ready. Elf coming to pick you up. We are going for some action."

As he was done sending the message, he sent another to Harry, "Green Hues under attack. I am going out with my team. Be on standby."

As he finished sending the message, three elves popped in. Neville turned to them, "Alright, I want two of you to go to Rupert McNaughton and Michael Corner and bring them to Green Hues. After you are done doing that you are to stay back and bring us back when the battle is over. By no means are you to interfere."

**Green Hues**

The elves bobbed their heads up and down. Neville and Hannah took Slinky's hands and disappeared. They appeared some way out of the circle of trees that encompassed Green Hues. In a thicket that screened them from the manor-house, they located the death eaters working the ward destroyer. They weren't having an easy go of it. The ward destroyer was making whirring noises as it slowly chewed its way through the wards, making a hole in them. Neville knew these wards could repair themselves given enough time but the continuous onslaught of the ward destroyer wouldn't give them that chance.

Just then, the other two members of his team appeared. Rupert whispered his question, "What is it, Longbottom?"

Neville hastily explained, "Now that our team is here, you need to know, the manor is under attack." He pointed, "There are ten death eaters in that thicket, working a ward destroyer. I don't think they know that they have been spotted yet. I want to bring them down before they can hurt anyone. Are you ready for what comes next?" They nodded with grim determination in response. He explained his plan, "It looks like we have the element of surprise on our side. We will spread out. On my signal, let loose with your most deadly spell. Immediately switch targets and fire off your best spell chain. With any luck, we'll have them outnumbered two to one before they even realize what's going on. From there, pair up. One shields while the other casts. Look out for shield breakers and remember to dodge. While we keep them busy, Gran is likely to attack from their rear. That'll be the last surprise they get. Give it everything you've got. Once you hit them, I don't want them getting back up again. And one more thing, if you want to stay alive, follow my orders, no matter what they are."

They carefully picked their way through the underbrush and took up stations behind large trees. Neville raised his left hand while his team took careful aim at their favourite death eater. When he dropped his hand, four wands spoke as one, quickly followed by four death eaters being hurled into the wards and meeting their demise. In the next second, two more death eaters met their fate as they were struck with some nasty and imaginative spell chains. The other two intended targets managed to think fast and dodge as the fatal spells went screaming by them. The steady droning of the ward breaker ceased as the wizard who had been working the device was no more.

When Harry received the message, he was on his way to drop Susan to the Badger's hole. He turned to her, "Sue, you can't return to your dorm just yet."

She asked coyly, "Got any other idea, Mr. Peverell?"

He showed her the message, "Our team is back-up for Longbottom and his team. We will go there, stay in the shadows and watch everything happen. If we feel that they are in trouble then we will step in otherwise we will let them do their work."

Holding her hand, he disappeared to appear outside Green Hues just as Neville's group was firing their first volley.

He heard the distinct shouts of bone breakers and bone crushers from three of their team and he realised that they needed to work on something more. Fortunately for Neville's team, the knockback and the wards had finished the job. Neville had shot the curse at his foe which he had used on Bellatrix and the gaping hole in his opponent's body was telltale to him that the opponent had departed for the next big adventure.

As four of the death-eaters went down, the remaining six responded to the threat by casting shields and turning to face their foes. The spell chains that hit two of them were led by shield breakers and they went down anyway. The two others who were targeted managed to dodge.

"Good.", thought Harry, "Now the odds are even. The death eaters don't stand a chance."

And then the death eaters started casting. To Harry's horror, they were casting killing curses from the first go. He wanted to rush forward to conjure obstacles to save them from the curses but halted when he realised that two other things were happening. For one, Neville's team had hard cover behind large trees. For another, Neville shouted, "Birds!", and canaries erupted from their wands to take the brunt of the attacks. There was a potentially fatal flaw in their strategy. If one of those trees took a killing curse and fell the wrong way…

When the next volley came, Neville waved his wand in a baton like motion and a wall appeared between them. As the wall began to disintegrate, Neville commanded, "banishing charm!" The resulting barrage of debris caused every one of the death eaters to duck and shield. They were hard pressed with the wards behind them and an enemy that they still hadn't seen clearly before them.

Suddenly there was a war cry. That was when the very distinctive figure of a woman wearing a stuffed vulture hat charged through the wards from behind the death eaters. With her first attack, she impaled one with a silver arrow that she banished at them. Then she was among the remaining three, garrotting then decapitating one of them with a razor-wire like spell coming from her wand. Gran Augusta Longbottom had arrived and she was terrifying!

As the remaining two turned to try and fend off this new threat, one fell dead as he was missing several important body parts, courtesy of the same spell that Neville had used on Bellatrix. The other went down under a volley of bone crushers from the other three. Augusta actually looked disappointed when she realized that the fight was over.

The next moment would tell Harry if Neville had been paying attention. But he didn't disappoint Harry, as he cast the Homenum revelio the next moment.

Neville spun in place and pointed his wand exactly where Suzan and Harry were hiding, "Come on out and I might let you live!"

That was when Harry heard the soft pop of apparition and saw a figure raising a wand toward the group. Quicker than thought, he whipped his wand around and roared, "Taditam.".

In the same instant, Neville recognized the voice of his god-brother and he was blinded as a lightning bolt struck the intruder. The new figure had no chance to understand what had happened before the lightning bolt struck him in the chest. The impact stopped his heart instantly, which was a small mercy as a large part of his chest had been blasted away.

Harry knew there was nothing for it now. He had to come out of hiding. Neville had to blink several times before the after image from the lightning bolt began to fade from his vision. As he and Susan came out, Aurors started apparating in. Frank was in the lead followed by Alice, Sirius, Moody, Proudfoot, Hestia and Amelia Bones.

Sirius spotted Harry and lunged for him, "Pup, what are you doing here?"

Before Harry could answer, Augusta started speaking, "They came here to deal with the death eaters. I was inside preparing to fight when I heard spell fire being traded. I thought that the Aurors had already arrived and came out to see if they needed any back-up. You can imagine my surprise when I found mere students taking them out like they were trained hit wizards. And our Neville leading them to boot!" She wrapped her grandson in a bone-crushing hug, then continued, "Neville took out two of them himself and made all the right calls during the battle. I couldn't be more proud of him. Who knows what those death eaters would have done if they hadn't arrived when they did."

Sirius turned to him, "What happened here, Harry?"

Harry gave Sirius a full report of how he stayed in the shadows to watch the battle. He was happy to tell how it was won by those four without his help.

Moody turned to him, "Lad, if they had it under control why did you interfere?"

Harry pointed to the charred corpse that was not with his fellows and said, "That one arrived late. He thought to get the jump on the unsuspecting ones. I killed him."

Moody who was inspecting the dead death eater exclaimed, "This was Selwyn's brother! How did you kill him? He looks like lightning struck him."

Harry nodded, "Something like that, Master Auror. The Order of the Snow Leopard does not give up its secrets."

Amelia meanwhile was talking to Susan, "And what was your involvement, Susie?"

Susan said without a trace of hesitation in her voice, "I didn't get to fight Auntie but if I had to, I would have killed all of them."

Amelia frowned for a moment before she sadly nodded, "That's my girl."

After hugging Alice and Amelia and telling Sirius that he would talk to him soon, Harry disappeared with his friends. The elves took them away while remaining invisible.

After the teens were away, Moody inspected the death eaters. He found that 4 of them were still alive. He grinned in anticipation. He shuddered when he saw the two who were killed by Augusta and recognized the work of the Longbottom family spell on the two that Neville had killed. He seized the ward destroyer content that the death eaters would not have it in their possession anymore. Rookwood would have a lot to answer for.

**Romania**

Voldemort had finally arrived in Romania. He had a string of adventures along the way. After he left Austria, he was attacked by a tribe of wizards who thought he was encroaching upon their territory. He was injured in the skirmish with them. That threat ended only after he was able to kill a number of them. There was another group of wizards who used small staves rather than wands. They did not use single words for incantation but their incantations were usually a line or two long. If they got to the end of it, each of their spells could do three or four attacks. Like one of their spells could stun, petrify and bind him while another could break his bones, shatter them and turn them into powder. He had been hit with one such hex and the bones in his left arm were shattered. He won over them when he started using Killing Curses against which they could not defend. After he had killed about 10 of them, they finally retreated leaving him in peace. He had to spend the night in the forest trying to cast magic on the hand to make it useable again. He had no potions with him. He was not sure if he could find the components of Skele Gro in the forest so he had to make do with what he had.

Soon after he was accosted by a pack of werewolves. He would rather have recruited them but, he had been forced to slaughter every last one of them when their alpha challenged him, then refused to accept his leadership when their alpha lay dead. If there had been a full moon, it could have ended very differently. Even though this body was a magical construct, there was no way of knowing if the bite of a werewolf would turn him to lycanthropy. After the first two had bitten him, he conjured a silver sword and started swinging it wildly about. The blade was rumoured to have belonged to Salazar Slytherin. He had found it while exploring the Chamber of Secrets. There were a couple of enchantments on the blade to keep it shiny and resist breaking but it was ordinary silver otherwise. The goblins had nothing to do with its creation, but silver is silver and it slew the werewolves all the same.

After he killed the last of them, he had to find a place to recuperate and brew some potions which would help him rejuvenate this husk. Since he had taken this body, it sometimes felt abnormal to him and refused to co-operate. It also got tired easily and any injuries took their time to heal completely. After combing through the forest through the night, he found the components which were required to repair the damage to his beaten and battered frame. Without a philosopher's stone, the bones of his father or a "handy" servant nearby, (blood of his enemies was available in abundant supply) completely remaking his body was not possible. Using materials at hand, the dark wizard transmuted a bath-sized stone cauldron from the surrounding rocks. He filled the vessel with the potion ingredients and started a fire under it. When the brew had steam rising from it, the surface a highly reflective silver colour and red sparks dancing over the surface, the dark lord stripped, leaving his ragged and filthy robes to one side. He climbed in, immersing himself completely in the scalding hot brew, the liquid overflowing and dowsing the magical fire below. A cloud of steam enveloped the scene with no sound but the hissing of the extinguished fire for a few minutes.

Any ordinary witch, wizard or muggle for that matter would have been scalded to death or drowned in the potion, but Voldemort's husk was none of these. When the cloud of steam cleared, it revealed the dark lord, skin gleaming, his injuries healed, standing in the empty basin. He stepped neatly from the stone basin to retrieve his wand from the stack that had been his robes. With a casual flick of his wand, he robed himself once more in the black.

It was good to have everything back in working order again, but the experience had drained him. He took a couple of days to gather his strength before going on to face new enemies. The forest and his wand would supply his needs until then.

He had also sent a message to the Unknown Castle back in England that a hundred more followers would be arriving to join the death eaters. They were to be kept with the Germans and not to be treated as his followers. He had to honour his word since he had given it at the cost of his magic.

Now he was in Romania and he knew he needed to travel to Transylvania where the Vampire covens were. Each coven had around 100 Vampires. He figured that with the support of even one coven, he would be able to augment his forces. The problem was that the covens were extremely secretive even with each other. That made it neigh impossible to find their hideouts unless they willingly revealed their location. He knew another labour was his fate to find the vampires and persuade them to join him. He believed that promising them all the blood they could drink would be sufficient motivation for the leeches. There should not be any problem recruiting them to his cause, right?

* * *

**A/N- The Covid-19 threat has scared the entire world and too many people have lost their lives. My heart goes out to them and their families. I sincerely hope that none of you fine people are affected by it and are staying indoors. This would be problem for little time but there is no better way to protect ourselves that to take adequate cautions. My city has been put on Lockdown with 15 other cities in my state because people were too stupid to run amok spreading infection and hiding their travel history. Take care all of you and stay indoors. Remember you don't need to go out every time to fight a war. Sometimes you can make you contribution by merely sitting inside your house, protecting yourself and your loved ones.**

**I and my learned editor James also dedicate this chapter as a tribute to the Corons Warriors who are out there fighting for us and trying to save our lives while jeopardising theirs. There is no way that we can pay off this debt. We can only remain in gratitude to you for all our lives.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Romania**

Romania was the perfect place for Tom. It was far enough away from Britain to be safe for now. Things moved at a more leisurely pace here than in Britain. It would be easy for him to find some support here. The thing which he had wanted was to have an edge with which to persuade them to his side.

The only problem that he had was that his face was too well known in all parts of the magical world. People recognised him on sight. He had received the word from Meyer that the ICW had let loose some of its chosen hit wizards to find him and put him down when they got the word that he was out of wizarding Britain. He was amused mostly because the ICW was generally pacifist. They had not taken the violent way against anyone since Grindelwald. Butt then Grindelwald was a big threat and a bigger idiot.

Grindelwald had led a war against the magical world with an army at his back. But he lacked commanders who were as vicious as him nor did he have the undying loyalty of his followers like Voldemort himself did. When it had become apparent that Albus Dumbledore had entered the war and was leading the forces of the ICW, most of his allies had abandoned him. They had all jumped ship and Grindelwald was left with a handful of followers who had not left his side. For himself, Voldemort solved this problem by branding followers such that if they attempted to betray him, they would quickly die for their lack of faith.

Voldemort had taken his lesson from Grindelwald's defeat. Grindelwald aimed higher but without ensuring that he had the means. He should have captured territories and countries one by one instead of trying to capture the world all at once. Taking a lesson from him, Voldemort had started with a country first. Avalon had a rich history of magic. With it on his side, he would have been invincible. He had the magic of Slytherin coursing in his veins and knew of some of the most powerful bloodlines there. He had many scions of old powerful families among his followers. He would have preferred the Longbottoms on his side because he knew of their history of being magical Vikings. He had recruited as many Blacks as he could find because they were an old house having originally come from the ancient country of Kemet. He wanted Potter too but James Potter had defied him to the last. Voldemort had to appreciate his valour when he was standing wandless against him trying to save his wife and son. Such loyalty was what he appreciated but alas! They would never have swayed to his side.

When he reached Romania, the first thing he had done was to seek an old Warlord Ionut Anastase. Ionut Anastase was about 10 years older than Voldemort and he had been the one to introduce him to Master Abbadon. Ionut like him was a sadistic person who wanted to see the world burn to ashes while he revelled in the feeling. He was powerful and had a very shrewd mind. It was from him that Voldemort got the idea to start by capturing a country. During the last few decades, Anastase had won and lost his hold on the country and surrounding regions. However unlike Wizarding Britain, people here did not frown on those who practiced Dark Magic. Since nothing could ever be pinned on Anastase, he lived an outwardly respectable life, while he killed his enemies quietly. He was mostly a political person.

Voldemort had no problem finding his manor. As he was a well known person and lived very lavishly, he didn't see the need for secrecy. His manor was huge but not very impressive to Voldemort after he had seen some of the more pretentious ones like Malfoy Manor. Lucius Malfoy liked to squander his gold and to show off to everyone. Unlike him, Ionut's manor had the feeling of a well lived in home. When he approached the manor, he cast a few detection spells to find the usual arrangement of blood wards and war wards around the place. It was no surprise to him. Anyone this influential was bound to have enemies. And to live without any security whatsoever would greatly shorten one's life expectancy.

The two wizards who were guarding the main gate of the manor shuddered at the sight of him. But gathering their courage, they challenged him, "What business do you have beyond these gates that you are approaching them?"

Voldemort drawled, "Inform your master that Lord Voldemort requests an audience."

The two had run away in such haste that it was comical. About 10 minutes later, the wizards hadn't return but the gates swung open of their own accord. Voldemort strode in. At a distance beyond the gates stood Ionut Anastase with his customary sadistic smile on his face as if he was about to light the world on fire. Other than the smile, most everything about him had changed. He was old for one thing. His dense hair had gone white and had started to recede. For another he had grown a forked beard which gave him an even more sinister look. His steel gray eyes were just as devoid of any warmth and abyssal as ever.

He didn't smile or make any gesture of welcoming Voldemort but said curtly, "Voldemort, I see the years have been kind to you. You still look young for a man about to be 70 years old."

Voldemort nodded, "Hello, my friend! It has been a long time."

He chuckled evilly, "We are not friends, Voldemort. I know you too well for that. What do you want of me?"

Voldemort said coldly, "Still the sadistic, cold, cynical man, Ionut? Very well, I want some information from you."

The other wizard raised an eyebrow, "And what would that information be? I don't think there's much that I can teach to Abbadon's favourite pupil."

Voldemort showed no expression but continued in the same cold drawling tone, "I want information on the Vampire Covens. I wish to recruit them to my cause in my war against Wizarding Britain."

The other wizard gave a dry chuckle, "You have been waging a war on them neigh 40 years now. Alright if you want the location of the leeches, I will find out and let you know. Is there anything else?"

"I want you to lend me some of your followers to aid in my battle."

Ionut shook his head, "No Voldemort. This is a request I can't grant. My men are not my slaves but loyal followers. I won't put them at risk for a mere acquaintance."

Voldemort grunted, "Alright. I will make do with the Vampires."

The other wizard continued, "Is there anything else?"

"I presume you are going to Show me the hospitality of your fine home, Ionut. Is that disagreeable?", he asked in a sickly sweet voice.

Ionut refused immediately, "I am not inviting you into my home. The ICW is on your trail and I don't want anything to do with them. I already have problems of my own without having the ICW after me. I however will give you a portkey to a safe house for your own use while you are here. When I have any information about the leeches, I will send it to you".

Saying that, he tossed a ring to Voldemort who tapped his wand to it muttering 'activate' and with a tug behind his navel, he was gone.

As Voldemort disappeared, the wizard turned to one of his associates, "Gustov, inform the Vampires that Voldemort is looking for them. Merlin knows we don't need them on his side."

**Hogwarts**

Harry woke up before dawn. Looking out of his dorm, he found that the weather had started to turn. Mercifully he could take all of them on a run again. He picked up his wand holster and sent a message on it to everyone in the Order- _"Meet me in the dungeons in the next 10 minutes. Tardiness will be dealt with harshly. Urgent."_

He watched as the wand holsters of everyone in his dorm started emitting whirring noises which got louder and louder until they got up. Neville grumbled, "Mate, it's before dawn. Why do we have to go out at this unearthly hour?"

Harry walked out of the dorm while saying over his shoulder, "If I don't find you down there in 10 minutes, you're all in for a lot of pain today."

As he casually walked down to the dungeons, He met Mrs. Norris on the way. He wanted to kick that wretched cat much like every student in the castle. He knew that she would be bringing Filch over in a minute. As she turned to go and disappear into the shadows, he inaudibly and wandlessly stunned her. Then he raised his voice, "Peeves".

The poltergeist came floating to him after a minute, "Potty calls Peevsie?"

Harry pointed to Mrs. Norris, "Take her away, will you? Hide her somewhere so that she can't interrupt us for about the next 2 hours."

Cackling, Peeves picked up the cat and floated away, "Oh yes! Fun times for Peevsie and Mrs. Norris!"

When he reached the dungeons, there was about 3 minutes remaining before the time limit ran out. He conjured a wing-backed chair and sat in it.

He was expecting the Serpents to arrive first because of their proximity. He was surprised to find Luna already in that corridor, trying to find something in a dark corner.

"Luna, what are you looking for?", he asked her.

"Oh, I thought I saw a wrackspurt here about a moment ago. I was going for a walk when I received your message and taking it to be urgent, I came as soon as I could."

About 5 minutes later, the serpents were the next to come scrambling to see what the commotion was about. As they came in, they found Harold Peverell sitting in a wing-backed chair, his legs crossed upon another on the knee and his wand in his lap with a grin on his face. A grin which did not bode well for them.

He smirked while he surveyed them, "I sent a message to all of you to come about 12 minutes ago and I told you it's urgent. If it were a death eater attack, I would have been dead. Is that what I have taught you all?"

Daphne growled, "Who wakes up at this unearthly hour, Peverell? Why have you called us here anyway?"

Harry grinned, "I miss shooting spells at all of you while you run. The weather was perfect and I wanted to have some fun. So here you are."

They all groaned collectively. It was Tracy who voiced their grievances, "Most of us are in our night-clothes, Harry. How are we supposed to run dressed like this?"

Mentally, Harry shrugged. To him it was not a challenge to transfigure what he was wearing into what would serve best under any circumstances. He decided that if they couldn't think for themselves, he wasn't going to help them. Harry's grin widened, "That's even better, Tracy. We don't know when the castle might be attacked or what state of dress we may be in at the time. Think of this as an opportunity to think on your feet."

Seconds later, the Puffs were the next to arrive with Susan in charge. She looked agitated and had her wand out. When she saw him lounging in a chair carelessly, she shot a stinger at him which he waved off with his hand and stood to embrace her.

She pummelled his chest with her fists, "You idiot! I was freaked out of my mind. Couldn't you be more specific?"

The claws and the lions arrived pretty much together. Only the fifth year lions were dressed in appropriate clothes while others were mostly in their night clothes. After everyone had made their presence known, Harry started addressing them, "Alright, listen up. Most of you were late in arriving. If I had been under some real threat, I would likely have been dead or abducted by now. In short, you all fail this test. Now start running."

That day, Harry joined them in running through those corridors for about the first hour. After that, he and Neville took up their positions to train the others. They started with wide area stunners. As he had thought, most of them fell to the spell.

After they had all been enervated, he faced them, "You have all failed me twice in the same day and it isn't even breakfast time yet. That has to be some kind of record. Couldn't any of you have the forethought to have your wand out and shield against spells which you could not dodge? You have all become lax with no practice for the last 50 days. And why are most of you still in your night clothes? Have none of you learned anything in transfigurations? See me tonight in the Room of Requirement. I need to refresh your memories."

With that he walked away followed closely by his friends.

Hermione asked him, "Why are you in such a mood, Harry? Has something happened?"

Harry grumbled, "You have all forgotten everything that I taught you and that Moody taught you. I mean did you people forget that we cast spells at you while you run? I am very disappointed. If that is how you go into battle then I would rather that I go alone."

Susan said, "I know we can't make excuses for our tardiness but we can do better the next time."

When they all arrived for breakfast, most of them were sore from running after so many days off. It showed in their demeanour. Everyone was silently eating their food when owls started coming in.

When Hermione opened her newspaper, she almost dropped it in shock.

_**"30 Muggles dead, Longbottom Manor attacked"**_

_In what can only be seen as growing boldness of the Death Eaters, yesterday in a slew of attacks, they killed 30 muggles in different parts of London while another 40 were taken to St. Mungo's. They are being treated for their injuries._

_Sources inside the ministry have speculated that these attacks were revenge for the death of Bellatrix Nameless and other death eaters killed in the recent botched ambush in Cardiff. When the ministry forces responded, they were not able to kill or capture many death eaters. Upon the arrival of Ministry forces, the death eaters retreated immediately rather than engage. About 5 death eaters were reportedly caught in those attacks. _

_These attacks perhaps represented the most concerted effort yet. They forced the ministry to deploy all of its Aurors to the widely scattered locations. As it appears, these heinous attacks were only a distraction to enable the master plan of attacking the Longbottom manor, also known as Green Hues. The only one home at the time was Augusta Longbottom, the dowager Lady Longbottom. _

_The manor is warded with some custom made wards which were erected after the last war and the attack on the General and his wife which had incapacitated them and kept them in St. Mungo's for years. It is rumoured that the said wards were erected by the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries and therefore to dare to attack the wards by the death eaters shows their growing boldness. The attack would not have harmed the General or his wife directly, yet if any harm had come to Dowager Lady Longbottom, it could have damaged the morale of the wizarding world by reason that Augusta Longbottom is one very well respected name in the community._

_Since the ministry had no reinforcements to send to thwart the attack on the manor, things could have been dire. It has been reported that the attack on Green Hues was thwarted by the now well known Order of the Snow Leopard which as in other instances, was able to arrive within the nick of time. Their identity is still a matter of speculation. It is rumoured that the members of the said order are hit-wizards who have been hired by someone who has a grudge with the death eaters. _

_Alastor Moody, the chief of the Aurors had this to say, 'I suppose they have their reasons for remaining anonymous. They'll let you know who they are when they're ready. For now, I'm just glad they could be there when we couldn't. For now, their identity and their objectives are a matter for the Ministry. Be wise of you to leave it at that.'_

_The General could not be reached for his comment."_

There was another news item in the lower half of the paper:

_**"Ministry approves conducting inheritance rituals for students at Hogwarts**_

_The Ministry, in a press release issued last evening, has given permission to conduct inheritance tests for all muggle-born students at Hogwarts to determine if they descend from any of the noble houses. It is hoped that some may be found to be rightful heirs to houses which no longer exist. The ministry has conducted an investigation into the report, leaked about a month ago, which claimed that the Muggle-born are descendants of old families. Their research has found that this claim is true._

_It is likely that many of those tested will be related to families which already have heirs existing. There will also be those who are descended from families considered to have gone extinct. What would happen in case there are already existing descendants is anyone's guess. If there are no other heirs, then it is very probable that we will see many of our houses being revived._

_When we contacted Gringotts, the spokes-Goblin said, 'we have received communication from the ministry. We are ready to go and conduct these rituals. Headmaster Dumbledore has agreed to let us use the Great Hall for the purpose.'_

_When asked about how it would change anything, Gringotts had to say, 'This will lead to many accounts being reopened. The economy of the wizarding world will benefit from gold which has been lying around going back into circulation.'_

_We at the Daily Prophet can only speculate what the far reaching consequences of the said event will be."_

When Harry read the news about the inheritance tests, he realised that the tests which were to be held about a week or so earlier had been postponed because the ministry had asked Gringotts to do so. The Ministry had said that it would allow for the tests when its investigation into the credibility of the report was finished. Apparently it was.

When she was done reading, she looked up at Harry, "Was this another of your little excursions we knew nothing about?"

Harry shook his head, "Not this time. It was entirely Neville and his team. I and Susan were only there as back-up. I can tell you that it's hard to be a spectator when you are itching to fight."

Hermione turned to Hannah, "Were you there?"

It was then Harry realised that Hannah was not so chipper this morning and for that matter, even Corner and McNaughton were quiet. He asked her, "Hannah, is something bothering you?"

Neville answered for her, "She's never had to kill anyone before. The knockback from one of her curses caused one of them to fly into the wards where he was incinerated instantly."

Harry nodded, "Meet me this evening at 4 in behind the mirror. It's about time we had one of our meetings."

**Ministry of Magic**

Frank was tired. He was tired of all the speculations and aspersions in the newspaper. He knew that if Harry wanted to, he could ask the Daily Prophet to cease from writing about the Order of the Snow Leopard in a bad light. But he also knew that doing so might have made them realise that perhaps the said Order had some connections with the owners of the paper. That was not something they were willing to risk revealing just yet.

Right now, he was in his chair opposite Mad-Eye who was giving his report on the incidents last night. Mad-eye was also frustrated with being tied up in the office. But, even if he were allowed to go out, there was nothing that he could do except maybe kill one or two of them. Whoever was in charge of the Death Eaters was willing to send all of their men to die. This was not something that the Ministry could afford. Frank valued the lives of the Aurors and if he had his way, he would have minimum casualties.

He turned to Moody, "Alastor, what happened to your source? We should have been informed in advance about the death eater's plans to attack Green Hues. It was luck that others were vigilant and had their own network which alerted them."

Moody nodded, "I will go and meet my source today to find out why we were not forewarned. I am also curious about how the lads are getting all the information which we don't. I am also baffled about how they can apparate out of the castle with the war wards being active all the time."

Frank shrugged, "They have young minds that think in different ways to solve any problem Alastor. They are new blood. When they join the ministry or take their seats on the Wizengamot, I will be the happiest. We could sure do with them sharing some of their ways with us. Merlin knows we need it."

"Do you require anything of me?", Alastor asked him. When Frank shook his head in the negative, he stood up, clicked his heels and was gone.

Mad-eye did not return to his office but to the torture chambers. In all the hassle of the last few days, he had no opportunity to interrogate them. Gawain had interrogated them before hand. His report had indicated who would be the first to fold under pressure. Alastor had ordered that one to be strapped to the chair in the interrogation chamber before he had gone to make his report to the minister.

When Alastor entered the room and turned the light on with a wave of his wand, he was surprised to see that it was a mere child strapped to the chair. He couldn't have been more than 20 or so. The mere thought that children as young as them were being brainwashed into serving Voldemort made him sad. That thought however only lingered for a moment before he remembered that the cretin before him had taken the mark willingly.

He took his time to conjure a chair and sat in it before turning to the death eater, "I'm not going to bother asking your name. Since the coward that you call master has returned, I have interrogated too many to care about. For me, you are just a number. I presume you already know who I am."

The death eater spat, "I don't fear the likes of you, Mad-eye."

Mad-eye sighed, "Not too bright, are ye lad? Why do you idiots bother to start posturing as if you are tough and courageous?" His magical eye bored into the prisoner, "I know that you're a coward. Do you think that I won't interrogate you? You were arrested in Cardiff where 15 of my boys were killed in a cowardly ambush at the hands of your comrades. Even if for nothing else, I want to hex you into oblivion with bone breakers. Do you realise how much pain it causes when a bone breaks?"

The death eater had clamped his mouth shut. Alastor just shrugged at the younger man's stupidity. Then to see if it would make his prisoner smarter, he shot a bone breaker at his leg. The snap and the howl from the death eater felt perversely satisfying to him, "I don't have to be careful about keeping you alive either. Should you die while I'm interrogating you, I'll simply report that you succumbed to your injuries. A fact that nobody will question. I've also gone to the trouble to learn torture the muggle ways. They are quite effective I assure you. And still, one of my prisoners refused to answer before he bled out all over the dungeon floor. It'll be interesting to see how much you'll take before you sell out your own mother. The other way is, I ask my questions and you answer them nice and polite.". He stopped long enough to rearrange his battered visage into a feral grin before he continued, "Now, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. I'm hoping you'll choose the hard way."

The death eater swallowed. Alastor started asking his questions, "First question. You look like you haven't been out of Hogwarts for long. Why did you join Voldemort?"

The death eater winced while he replied, "The Dark Lord promised to make the purebloods great again. He will establish a society which will be free of the impurity of the mudblood…"

Faster than thought, Alastor lashed out with the dagger in his left hand and buried in the death eater's thigh, "Remember I said nice and polite? Use that word again and the dagger will find your heart. Now continue."

The death eater howled and bawled in pain. Alastor waited for sometime before he growled, "This is just the start. If you think your cries can save you from me, you are sadly mistaken. Nobody but me can hear you in here. This room has silencing wards. If you don't start speaking again, I will teach you new ways to experience pain."

The death eater continued to howl, lamenting the wound in his leg. When Alastor lost patience with the display, he savagely plunged his blade deeper into the wound while twisting it. Between screams of pain, the death eater begged for mercy, but the Auror kept at his work for a good five minutes without any outward sign that he could even hear his victim.

When Alastor was satisfied that he had driven his point home, he said, "Here's the deal, laddy. You do what I want or I get to do what I want. The question you will answer is, why did you join the death eaters?"

The death eater finally started speaking, gritting his teeth against the pain from his ruined leg, "the Dark Lord painted a rosy picture of the world that he would make when he was strong in the first war. A world where we purebloods will rule and others will serve us. He also promised to kill those who had stolen our magic. Who wouldn't want to serve such a noble purpose?"

Alastor growled, "And what about the blood lines he extinguished? Magical blood which has been serving our world since long before Britain was a nation? What about them? Were their lives nothing? Even hundreds of your comrades have been killed since your Dark Lord has come out into the open. What about them?"

"Every war asks for our sacrifice. We sacrifice ourselves along the way to fulfil the dreams of the Dark Lord. Those who oppose us are in the way and have to be taken care of. We will have new bloodlines which will serve us."

With a great effort, Alastor resisted the urge to snatch the dagger from the prisoner's leg and plunge it into his heart. Then he snarled, "Hard as it is for me to believe, you're stupider than you look. That farce of a so-called dark lord that you serve is a half-blood that cares nothing about you or anyone else. Pure-blood, half-blood, muggle-born, muggle, it's all the same to him. He'll spend the lives of your friends and family like water if it gets him what he wants. Now, I've wasted enough time trying to smarten you up. Next, you're going to tell me exactly what your inner circle is up to in that little hidey-hole you call headquarters."

This time the death eater refused to speak. Alastor reminded him with a twist of the dagger, "You do what I want or I get to do what I want."

When the prisoner still refused to speak, he pulled the dagger from the wound and plunged it into the prisoner's other leg. The prisoner screamed, tried to reach the new wound with his hand to stop the bleeding and the pain, but his shackles held him firmly in place.

Alastor knew that he should remove the dark mark from the prisoner at this point in the interrogation. Peeling it off with his dagger or even amputating the arm with a dark cutter would be merciful compared to what would happen next. But, he wanted to see if the new restraints would be strong enough to prevent the prisoner from throttling himself when he betrayed Voldemort. If somehow his marked arm yanked free of the arm-rest it could kill him for all he cared.

"Tell me what they are planning or I will kill you… slowly.", growled Alastor.

The death eater was in too much pain to try and answer. Alastor didn't care about him at all. He only wanted answers. When he saw no answer forthcoming he Said coldly, "So be it."

He cast a numbing charm on the prisoner's entire body. Although it gave him immediate relief from the pain of his wounded legs and broken bone, He was immediately suspicious. Somewhere right at the edge of his vision, Alastor picked up an instrument from a table. With a grin, the old Auror displayed the fan shaped blade before his prisoner's eyes, "Do you know what this is, lad? It's a skinning knife. Since they put me back in active service, I've been collecting trophies. I've got dozens of hides from your fellows before you. I'm about to add yours to my collection while you watch, hence the numbing charm. I'm going to send the whole lot to your master as a gift."

He ripped the shirt open and started working below where the restraint shackles would let the prisoner see. All the time, Moody watched the marked arm for the tell-tale twitch that meant the death eater had decided to talk and was about to be choked to death by his own hand.

It didn't take long before he started begging, "No! Please! I'll tell you everything. Just don't skin me alive."

The old Auror sat back down in his chair. He watched with some amusement as important parts of the marked arm tore themselves apart with the effort of trying to break loose to kill the traitor. Thanks to the numbing charm, the hapless prisoner wasn't even aware that his own arm was desperately trying to kill him. "Well", he thought, "At least we know that the new restraints are good enough."

"Alright.", He said as he grinned, running his thumb along the edge of the bloody skinning instrument, "Start singing."

There was no sense telling the death eater that he only threatened to flay him alive. Any hard core death eater would not have broken down even half way yet. This one was still young so it didn't take much effort. Under the numbing charm, he had already stopped the bleeding from the leg wounds and repaired the broken bone, but the damage to the lad's left arm looked hideous. Bones splintered, the detached muscles still twitching with the effort to try and kill their host, it would likely have to be amputated. Well, that made little difference since the lad was going to be tried, convicted and executed as a death eater anyway.

"They are trying to get the Germans to train us or at least be able to work in co-ordination with us. I also heard about more people arriving from Austria."

Alastor was shocked, "What! How do you know that?"

"They think they are above other followers. They keep some of us to run errands. An errand boy, being practically invisible to their inflated egos, can learn much just by standing in a corner."

Moody grimaced. If there were more coming it would mean that they would need help and sooner. A meeting of the Order was in order to take this news to them. However before that he needed to see Severus Snape and ask why his intelligence failed this time.

**Potions Master's Office**

The floo in Snape's office roared and someone growled, "Snape, are you there?"

Severus recognised that voice. He looked at the grate and sure enough, Moody's face was sitting in the flames. He drawled, "What do you want Mad-eye? I have a class in minutes."

Moody growled, "You failed to inform us about the attacks yesterday. If others had not been vigilant, we would have had even more losses on our side."

Severus drawled, "Did it occur to you that I am a teacher and may be my responsibilities didn't allow me to leave my post?"

Moody barked, "Don't give me that steaming pile of dragon dung of an excuse. You may have convinced Albus but not me."

When Moody's head disappeared, Severus decided to go to the unknown castle and see Rabbastan. If he continued to be unreliable then Severus would have to dispose of him and find another spy.

**Behind the Mirror on the 4th Floor**

When the members of the Order had all arrived, Harry started speaking without preamble, "yesterday, a few members of our order were there to defeat the attack on Longbottom Manor. They fought well and defeated the death eaters without suffering any casualties. But things could have gone very differently and I am going to address that right now while you are all here.".

He turned to Susan, "Susan, since you had the chance to observe, please give me your assessment."

She took her time to reply, "They were brilliant but they used large trees for hard cover. This restricts their movement when dodging. If any of those trees had taken a hit from a killing curse and fallen the wrong way, they could have been pinned or crushed to death. The other issue was that after the first volley, everyone but Neville were shouting out their spells at the top of their lungs, giving their opponents every chance to counteract them."

Harry nodded, "That was right on the mark. Thank you, Susan. Using trees for hard cover is a questionable judgement. They are living things and can be killed outright by certain curses, including the killing curse. We can talk more about that later. Shouting out your incantations, on the other hand, is very poor practice in any combat. No spell can be effective unless it hits its target. No spell can hit its target when everyone in shouting distance knows what it is before it even leave your wand. Non-verbal spells can be a pain to cast. They also have less power behind them but a spell that is counteracted before it even leaves your wand is no spell at all.

While I know that it might be tedious to teach inaudible casting to everyone with everything that's already going on, we must do it to be effective in combat. As I see it, most of us will be there in the final battle. I want to give you every chance possible to come out of it alive. Of course, your best chance to survive is to be somewhere else when it all goes down." He paused and looked around at everyone's faces while he let his words sink in.

After some time, he started speaking again, "So how many of you can cast inaudibly?"

Most of them who had studied under mad-eye raised their hand.

Harry did a double-take, "This is surprising but great. Now can I impose upon all of you to teach it to your friends or team members? For those whose team members already know it, you can teach others. It shouldn't take long."

They agreed and Harry spoke further, "Yesterday I also noticed how deftly Neville commanded his team members and they acted according to his instructions. The highest praise that anyone can give to it was in Gran Augusta's words, 'I came out to see that mere students were fighting the death eaters and taking them down as if they were hit wizards.' I know that the members of my team have the ability to work like a well-oiled machine. Now, I want to see that in every team. Most of all, I want them to obey their leader without any questions."

Hermione nodded, "How do you propose we go about it? I mean we will need to look after everyone and not all of them are at the same level talent wise."

Harry nodded, "Indeed. Therefore it is time that we take the next step."

Hermione asked him, "What next step? What are you going to do? Are there any more secrets you are keeping?"

Harry smirked, "Hermione, I am always keeping secrets. For now, the next step is to divide them. It is time we give them their specific roles. They should know what they are to do in case of siege. The list that you prepared will be useful and we will also be able to see how correct we were in our assumptions."

He then turned to Hannah, "Hannah now that you have taken a life, how do you feel about it?"

Hannah didn't know what to say, "Harry, I am still shocked. I mean I watched in fascination when he flew back into the wards and was incinerated. On the other hand, I was nauseated when I saw their twisted bodies after the bone breakers hit them. The thing that Dowager Longbottom did with them! That was horrifying for me. I didn't know that she could move so fast or be so brutal."

Harry nodded, "Even I was amazed with it. If only she were a couple years younger, I wouldn't need anyone else to take down Voldemort with his inner circle."

Everyone had a good laugh at his statement. Then Harry turned sombre again, "Hannah I know taking life is grim business. It can lead to scarring your soul forever. Those visions may haunt you for the rest of your life but remember that it was imperative for you to do it. When it comes to your life or theirs, there is only one choice."

**Unknown Castle**

The Inner circle was sitting for another meeting to discuss what to do when Severus thundered into the room. His expression bore ill for anyone who dared to offend him. Except for the departed Bella, nobody really liked to antagonize him anyway. They all knew how much their Lord valued Severus's advice over their own and how useful he was to them.

Severus took his seat at the table before he asked them, "What are we talking about?"

Lucius asked him, "What are you doing here? Won't the old mudblood loving fool notice that you are missing?"

Severus said coldly, "With you idiots trying to get every last one of us killed, I had to venture out. I told the old fool that I am going to gather some information. That was the only way that he would allow me to get out of the castle." He waited for a moment before he started speaking again, "Do you have any idea how many we have lost yet? If the Dark Lord himself wasn't on an expedition to work tirelessly to augment our numbers, we would have been worse off. Do you plan to annihilate all of our followers?"

Dolohov asked, "What are you talking about, Severus? The ministry is also losing Aurors as we lose death eaters. Unlike us, they are not getting any help."

Severus looked at him as if Dolohov was stupid, "Tell me Antonin, you succeed in killing one Auror while they kill 5 of your death eaters. How does that sound to you? Before we are able to kill all the Aurors, they will have annihilated all of the death eaters. And then there is this new order about whom no one knows anything. What I have been able to unearth about them is that they are some foreign group of wizards who are being paid to fight in the war. I couldn't figure out who is their benefactor but I suspect Black is behind it. This Order shoots first and doesn't linger for questions later. They struck some kind of deal with the Ministry where the ministry overlooks their crimes in return for their services. With the ministry and this Order working together, do you think we will have enough followers left for the Dark Lord to wage his war on Magical Britain?"

Dolohov asked him, "So what do you propose we do?"

Snape looked at Greyback, "Can I trust you to harass the ministry and cause damage to it?"

Greyback grinned, "Just point me to the targets and I will get it done. Perhaps we'll even add a few werewolves to our ranks while I'm at it?"

Severus smirked, "I am sure that you all can come up with choice targets by yourselves. But, by no means are you Greyback, to go out by yourself. If something were to happen to you, the rest of them will bolt."

Greyback nodded. Severus then turned to Rookwood, "Augustus, what happened to your ward breaking skills? In your idiocy you have even cost us the ward breaker. Why couldn't you go out and assess the wards by yourself?"

Now that Severus said it, they all realised that they were indeed idiots to have kept Rookwood inside. Even if he were not sent with a group, he could have gone by himself to assess the wards. No one would even inspect a single individual. Maybe he would have found some fault in those wards.

In fact with all the suggestions that Severus gave, they all realised why the Dark Lord preferred his counsel over theirs. He was shrewd enough to know what to do. He apparently had solutions to all of their problems.

When the meeting was over, Snape found Rabbastan in his room, "Lestrange, why didn't you tell me about their activities?"

Rabbastan sputtered something incoherently then Severus petrified him. Employing legilimancy, he entered Rabbastan's mind and found that the younger Lestrange was trying to fight off the Imperious curse. Severus hadn't suspected that he could do that. The fact that he was offering resistance threw a wrench in his plans. He would have to break his mind completely to make him bow to his will.

Distastefully he closed the door with a flick, employing some strong wards around the room and locking the door with a locking charm. He then turned to Lestrange, pointed his wand at him and coldly intoned, "Crucio!"

Rabbastan withered under his spell for about a minute before Snape ended his curse. Employing legilimancy, he checked his mind again and perhaps didn't like what he saw because he levelled his wand at Lestrange again and intoned, "Crucio."

Lestrange withered under the curse, his teeth chattered and after about 2 minutes, Snape ended the spell. He checked his mind again and this time perhaps he liked what he saw because this time, he cast the Imperious curse, "Imperio."

Lestrange's eyes glazed over and Snape's voice started to echo in his mind, "You are not allowed to resist my commands or my spell. For you only my commands matter. You will do as I say and send me a report daily on the coin."

With that he ended the spell, shoved a potion down Lestrange's throat to ease the symptoms of the Cruciatus curse and then performed the obliviation curse making him forget that Snape had cast the Cruciatus curse on him.

He walked out of the Castle with some ideas in his mind and to inform a few people about the happenings in the meeting.

**The Room of Requirement**

When the students gathered in the Room of Requirement, they realised that Harry was not going to teach them anything straight away. He was going to talk first. They all pulled up a chair.

He started speaking, "You have all worked with dedication and it shows. Every one of you has come a long way from where you were at the beginning of the school year.

There is something that I must talk to you about today. As you might have read, yesterday the Longbottom manor was attacked. A few of our members defended the place. This reminded me that not all of you are fighters. There is no shame in that. I am sure everyone here can agree this is something we would rather find out here and now rather than when you are in a life and death situation.

I want to make a couple of things clear. First, nobody is going to be kicked out. Everything we are learning here will go towards helping you pass your exams. It will be better for you to know it if you are ever in a situation where your options are to fight or die. Second, there are things that will need to be done that do not include front-line fighting or taking lives. Specifically, we will need people to help with healing, evacuation and caring for the evacuated children when the time comes. I would like people to identify themselves and volunteer for these duties so that we can begin to specialize your training. We can be flexible. You can change your specialization at any time, but I point out that the earlier you make this choice, the better prepared you will be. I'll give you a few minutes to consider."

The students were stunned. A choice? They all thought that they were training to take on Voldemort and his minions. Until now, it hadn't occurred to any of them that they could help in any other way.

Lee Jordan raised his hand and asked, "But why? We all want to fight with you and we sure can bring them down."

Harry Sighed and explained, "Lee, I've worked with and talked to everybody here. I can't even tell you how it feels to know that any one of you would walk through fire for me. Please understand, this is not about loyalty or courage. You have all proven that you have more than enough of both. This is every one of you taking a good hard look inside and deciding for yourself where you can be the most help to our cause. We do need defenders, but we also need people to save lives by healing and evacuating those who cannot or should not fight."

Lee nodded.

Harry continued, "Before any of you make a hasty decision, one of our teams defended Longbottom Manor. I want you to hear a first-hand account of what it was like. Neville, Hannah, Michael and Rupert, please come forward.". He waited while they all made their way to his side. He asked, "Who would like to have a go first?"

Michael volunteered, "I was studying for OWLs when I received a message that I was being called for some action. Well, I won't deny that I had been itching for some action since we started learning all these spells and I felt it would be a good opportunity to know what it was like. When we got there, Longbottom told us what we were to do and then the implications began settling in. I mean we were to kill, take a life. We were deliberately going to end a life knowing the consequences of our actions. I was even doubting myself if I would be able to take the shot."

Everyone listening to him was enraptured. Harry himself hadn't had the opportunity to talk about how he felt when he killed for the first time. His first kill was in the battle in Burma where he had killed a few. Harsh hadn't stopped to ask him how he had been feeling. In fact for mystics, it was second nature so there was no one to tell his experience to.

Michael was saying, "So, there we were, mere students who were about to take on adult death eaters who could kill us. When Longbottom gave the command, we let loose our spells and three of them were knocked into the wards where they were incinerated. The fourth one looked like he'd been hit with a muggle cannon ball. All four of them died in the same moment. This was the first time that I have seen wards killing someone and trust me it was not pretty. With the next volley, I'm sure I downed one of them with a bone breaker. The odd angle at which his body was bent made me want to throw up. Then, when we thought the battle was over, Harry killed one of them who was trying to sneak up on us, with such ease as if he were walking in the garden. His spell blasted away a part of the death eater's chest and fried up the remains of his body. It is not a sight that I will ever forget for the rest of my life. I was scarred at the moment and I fear it will be long before I will feel quite myself again."

When he was done speaking, there was silence in the Room of Requirement for a while.

Harry gave people time to reflect before he spoke again, "This is the reason that I want you all to decide. I know some of you may not feel comfortable with taking a life. This is why I want you to consider helping in other ways." The students deliberated over it for a while before they made up their minds. Harry had three pieces of parchment for them on which they had to sign depending on what they had to do. When they were all done, there were about 55 fighters, 15 healers and 10 who decided to help with evacuation.

After that was done, Harry started sending them to their common rooms by opening passageways from the Room. Soon most of them were gone and only Ron, Hermione, Neville, Susan and Hannah were left.

Hermione broke the silence, "That sounded horrible. I mean we have talked about it before but I never had any one describe to me what it was like. I am not sure how would we feel when we have to eventually take a life."

"Breaking curfew again, Mr. Peverell? Why am I not surprised?", said Severus Snape who had just stepped out of the shadows of the room. "Well, well, six students out of bed and three of them Prefects at that, engaged in doing who knows what. That will be 20 points each for Mr. Peverell, Mr. Longbottom and Miss Bones. And as for you prefects, who ought to know better, 40 points each. Furthermore, detention with Professor Sprout, tomorrow at six."

He had walked in behind the last student with an intention to find Harry. Harry, in his carelessness, hadn't checked if someone uninvited had come in. He sat through everything that Michael said and it somewhere had struck a chord with him. He was also satisfied that Harry gave a chance to people to make their own choices. However he could not stop himself from pulling one on Harry.

**Romania**

Ionut appeared outside the safe house that he had leased to Voldemort to find him sitting in a throne like chair and contemplating something.

"Voldemort", he called him. "I have the information you need."

Voldemort turned his attention to him, "What information do you bring, Ionut?"

"The leeches are mostly in Transylvania and living in the mountains which are inaccessible to anyone except through magic. They have wards around their places but no blood wards. They have some war wards but it won't require much effort to break them down. What you need to be careful about is their numbers. There are too many in one place for even a powerful dark wizard as yourself to handle if things turn ugly. I know that body of yours is a magical construct, but who knows what would happen if they got their fangs into you.". He passed a pendant to Voldemort, "This is a locator. It will guide you to the general location near their hide-out. The rest is up to you to do. If you are successful, you will get many followers. If you fail, even I can't tell you what will happen then."

Voldemort said coldly, "And how am I to find them? I mean will you give me a portkey to the nearest location?"

Ionut shook his head, "I can't risk it. I am done with helping you. While you were hiding here, the ICW has entered the country following your trail. The tribe of wizards you clashed with on your way here are classified as 'protected' by the ICW. From them, they learned that you were heading this way. For now, I have misled them but I don't know how long I will be able to do so. It is prudent for you to leave when you still can. I also have received some terrible news from Wizarding Britain about a new Order which has challenged the ministry as well as your own. Maybe you should head home as soon as you can."

Voldemort nodded, "I have to find master Abbadon before I return home. Only he can tell me a way to vanquish my foe for good. I mean he has twice escaped the killing curse."

Ionut was shocked, "What! That is unprecedented! I guess Master Abbadon will be able to find an answer to your dilemma."


	12. Chapter 12

**Hogwarts**

The next morning, there was a noticeable lack of crystals in the lower bulbs of the hour-glasses for both Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. Snape's little joke had cost the lions 120 points and another 60 from the puffs. The students noticed as they walked by on their way to breakfast.

Snape, who had proven his worth as a spy to the Order of the Phoenix over and over again, had been in the Room of Requirement long enough to understand what Harry and his friends were up to. In previous years, it had been beyond his comprehension how this very ordinary, undersized wizard was the hope of the wizarding world. He had ridden Harry hard, partly hoping that the lad would show some sign of the man that would vanquish Voldemort at last and partly out of his hatred for James Potter. Somehow, the boy had been in the middle of it every time there was trouble. And yet, seemingly by sheer luck, the Potter boy had survived each time. Finally the boy had learned how to fight and that was fine by Snape. But he was involving the other students in the business and that could lead to trouble. He shook when he thought about the students organizing and training to fight, but whether it was with fear for the students, rage at Potter or hope that the dark lord could be defeated, he could not tell.

He knew each of them that they were all very bright but he hadn't suspected what they could do. When he heard that Longbottom had led the team that dispatched ten death eaters without taking so much as a scratch, you could have knocked him over with a feather. Right up until the end of the last school year, the boy couldn't conjure a cup of water or brew a potion to save his own life. What had wrought this change in him? For now, Snape realized that it might be bad for his health to antagonize Neville again. Merlin knows what Dumbledore was teaching him.

After he awarded detention to them, he had let all of them go and then cornered Potter, "Potter, we need to talk."

Harry eyed him warily, "Yes Professor, how may I serve you?"

"Potter, the death eaters have come to their senses and realized that they have lost too many of their men recently. They have changed their strategy. They are going to send in the werewolves now. I don't need to impress upon you how dangerous that would be."

Harry nodded grimly, "No Professor. I know that. I'm thankful that you have let me know about it."

When Harry returned to his dorm, he pulled out his mirror and called Remus, "Moony!"

Remus's face appeared in the mirror with a smug grin on his face and Tonks beside him. He asked him jovially, "What is the matter, cub?"

"Suit up, Moony. Greyback is unleashing his pets."

The grin faded from Moony's face and he asked with a bit of steel in his voice, "Are you sure, Harry?"

Harry nodded, "My source is reliable."

Remus nodded, "I'll let my men know then. They have been complaining that they have nothing to do."

Harry nodded, "Alright but when you go out on any such hunt please send your elf to inform me."

"Of course cub, I'll let you and Padfoot know. Speaking of Padfoot, the old dog has been whining that you promised to call him and you haven't yet."

Harry nodded, "I guess I keep forgetting. I will call him right now."

With that he cut the connection. He wanted to go to bed but figured that talking to Sirius beforehand was necessary. Putting the mirror in front of his face, he called, "Padfoot."

A moment later, Sirius's scowling face appeared in the mirror, "About time son. I thought you forgot me."

Harry grinned, "Sorry, Sirius. Things have been keeping me pretty busy. How have things been at your end?"

Sirius waved him off, "Same old son. I wanted to talk to you about something important."

Harry was alert instantly, "Yes. What's it about?"

"A couple of days ago, Moody asked me for a meeting. In that meeting, he freely admitted that with only the Aurors we have, we can't stop the attacks against the muggles. We're going to need a lot more help from the ordinary witches and wizards who live in their midst.

Part of the problem is that, even with Frank Longbottom in charge, a lot of them still don't trust the Ministry. I suppose that having callous, shallow people like Fudge and Bagnold running things for years might have left a bad taste in their mouths. However, they absolutely adore some of our most famous citizens like the chosen one, the general etc. I don't know What they'd be willing to do for Frank but if you were to ask them to walk through a river of fire, they would do that for you gladly."

Harry nodded. He understood what Sirius was getting at. Getting the ordinary wizarding population to actively help the war effort would make a huge difference. They could ward their muggle neighbours. They could gather intelligence regarding death eater appearances. They could summon ministry Aurors and inform them about what they would be facing when they arrive. With the inner circle cutting the werewolves loose, getting immediate notice of any attacks was even more important. Many of the werewolves were not wand users, making them even harder to spot until they attack. Being able to respond even seconds sooner might save someone from being bitten and killed or even worse, turned. What's more, if the casualties continued to climb, people might lose all confidence in the ministry and either flee for their lives or join Voldemort's supporters. That is how wars are lost.

The ministry, under Frank Longbottom, were on the right track, but that progress was still tenuous. If they were seen to stumble too much, that progress could be halted. Harry was determined to help them out if he could.

"Tell me Padfoot what do you want me to do?"

"Pup, this is solely your decision. I think you can ask them to help the ministry in any way they can. They can help their fellow muggles by erecting protection around their homes. They can contact the ministry if they see an attack happening or suspicious activity and the like. I am sure you can figure out a way."

Harry nodded, "I'll do that. Now, I want you to tell me about your wedding preparations. Is everything arranged?"

Sirius shrugged, "I don't really know. I asked Andy about it a few times. She told me not to worry about it. She's also been visiting me and asking me about the menu and decoration ideas. I told her that I don't care if they are serving fish or chicken so long as I get married. The rest is for her to decide. It's a small mercy that it's Andy I have to deal with. If it were Molly Weasley, I would have gone barmy by now. She's been driving poor Bill up the wall asking him to help her choose the decorations, what he would like for the feast and all the like."

Harry grinned, "Good thing then that Aunt Andromeda is there, eh."

After they talked about a few inconsequential things, Harry cut the connection and went to sleep.

The next morning, Harry stepped up the practice to full-brutal. Previously, they had kept themselves to stingers and stunners. Today, they were using bludgeoners and wide-area stunners. The students had remembered yesterday's run. They had their wands out. He enlisted Ron, Hermione, the twins, Neville and Susan to cast spells at the students while they ran. At first, the spells bounced harmlessly off the shields. When Harry could see that they were getting complacent, just running with shields up, he exchanged looks with Neville and Hermione. Shortly after that, students were getting stunned or knocked off their feet in every direction as half the spells being fired at them were shield breakers.

After another ten minutes most of the students were either unconscious or sporting some bruises. Harry called a halt to it. He went around with the others who were still on their feet, innervating and healing the worst of the bruises. When they were all gathered together he said, "You have all failed for the second day in a row. Who told you to stop dodging?"

In response, the other students started looking down at their feet. Some grumbled, and words like "Sadist" and "Slave driver" could be made out in the mix.

Harry continued, "Remember, some spells can only be shielded, some can only be dodged and then there are those that can only be avoided by putting something in between you and the caster. If you hope to survive a real battle, you must be able to recognize each spell and take the appropriate counter-measure without even thinking about it. Now get moving and don't let me catch you out again."

The students certainly weren't moving as quickly as they had the day before. They were still sore from yesterday's workout. That didn't matter much. The muscle Harry wanted them exercising was the one between their ears. After Harry's pep-talk, they did better. At the end of two hours, most of them were making the correct choice between shielding, dodging and blocking. The ones who tried to keep a shield up all the time tired quickly. Harry made a point of breaking their shields every time they passed him. At the end of two hours, it seemed like everybody was done in. They were all breathing hard and sweaty. Finally, Harry called a halt.

"Alright, everyone gather round!" It took a couple of minutes before the students from the farthest part of the course joined them.

Harry began, "That's what I'm talking about. I want every one of you to remember what we did here this morning. When you're in a fight for your life, they're not going to be using stunners, stingers and bludgeoners. And I can guarantee that they're not going to innervate you and say, 'Have another go?' I don't want to be telling your families that you are dead because you fought bravely, but you were stupid. We're going to do this tomorrow, same time, down by the lake. Remember what you learned here this morning or it's going to be painful."

**Romania**

Voldemort was frustrated. Just how hard could it be to find the Vampires? It looked like they had all disappeared with his coming in these parts. If they continued to be so hard to find then Tom would have to take more time that he did not have before returning home.

The bit of news about the conflict from Wizarding Britain was worrisome. He knew that he had ordered his followers to keep harassing the ministry. It was likely that the destruction and chaos they were causing was the news Ionut was talking about But in any case, he needed to get back. He had been away for a month already. It was about the middle of February now. He had initially planned to get as many followers as he could but with the ICW on his trail, he had to severely curtail his plans.

When he arrived in the region known as Transylvania, he sought out the local wizarding community. They were really not hard for him to find. They were mostly scattered about the hilly regions where they could have as much seclusion as they liked. There was an inn located in a copse of trees which was ringed by some wards to make it go unnoticed by the muggles. Even Voldemort might have missed it if he didn't already know exactly what he was looking for. This inn was the meeting place for the local population of dark wizards.

He went to the inn in the dark of the night when it was at its peak business hour. As he opened the door, everybody went silent at once. Most of them looked as if they had been petrified. A few were about to pass out from fear. He could smell the fear on them. Fear so palpable that it felt oddly satisfying to him.

"Hello my merry men", he said in his sickly sweet voice, "I don't have to ask if you know me. I was looking for a volunteer from among you to help me with a little problem."

Obviously no one was going to volunteer. He randomly selected one of them. That man was trying to hide, slumped down in his chair. He could feel Voldemort's penetrating gaze on the back of the chair, "I have chosen you for the honour of serving Lord Voldemort today."

The panic stricken man could barely move. When Voldemort entered the room, the man had slid down in his seat, hoping that Voldemort would not notice him. Voldemort had obviously noticed that one and decided that since he was the weakest of the bunch, he would have to serve him.

When the man did come out of the shadows with his legs shaking, eyes down and carrying a distinct smell of having soiled himself Voldemort recognised the magical signature of this individual. His lips curled up in a sneer, "Igor Karkaroff! We meet again."

The former headmaster of Durmstrang fell at Voldemort's feet, clutching the hem of his robes, "Master, mercy! Mercy! Have mercy on me."

Voldemort said coldly, "I rewarded you above my other followers Igor. I gave you the honour of having you in my inner circle. You repaid my kindness by betraying me. You gave up most of my followers for mercy from the ministry. You are pathetic. When others returned to me after my resurrection, you ran away."

Igor knew his life had come to an end. When he escaped Hogwarts at the end of the tournament, he had directly come here to Romania. He thought he would be safe here away from Wizarding Britain but Voldemort had found him.

Voldemort had taken out his wand and levelled it at Igor, "Give me one good reason why I should forgive you, Igor. Your life was forfeited when you betrayed me. Even now you grovel before me to forgive you. You disgust me."

Igor tried to say something when Voldemort cast his spell, "Crucio!". Igor started withering under the might of the spell. This spell was cast with all his power, was fuelled by all his rage and hatred and was unbearable. It kept going on for about 3 minutes and nauseated all the patrons in that inn.

Finally one of them gathered his courage and levelling his wand at Voldemort, he shouted, "Let him go."

Voldemort looked up, amused, "Ah we have a volunteer here who has decided to show what happens to those who invoke my wrath."

Without even thinking, he levelled his wand at the unfortunate patron and roared at the top of his voice, "Avada Kedavra." With a rushing sound, the green jet left Voldemort's wand and struck the wizard in the chest. The next moment, the said patron fell to the ground, his eyes lifeless and vacant.

His death caused frantic activity around the inn making people run around in panic. Some even shot curses at him which he took on a shield he had produced lazily. However said attacks had provoked his ire. He casually started throwing Killing curses around. It took hardly more than a minute before all the patrons were dead.

He bent down to grab Karkaroff by his robe and disapparated.

Back at the inn, the inn-keeper who had hidden behind his counter and lived through the tale was in shock. He had heard about Voldemort, knew he was a maniac but he had not expected him to be an absolute monster. He had killed far too many people today. He wanted to avenge them but knew it was beyond his power. He however knew a certain monster hunter who could help. When he was over his shock, he decided he would have to inform the officials of magical law enforcement about the attack and left his inn. He also had to see someone about Voldemort. He had no faith in the local law enforcement officials.

**Somewhere in Transylvania**

The inn-keeper knew where he could find the person who would give Voldemort a run for his money. This person who was a regular visitor to his inn and was the main reason that the Vampires kept away from them. Using a portkey that he had been given, he arrived in the entrance hall of a two storey house. A man, who wore a leather mask and was on duty, levelled his wand at him, "Your name and purpose?"

The inn-keeper replied, "I am Arachnov. I seek an audience with Mr. Petrov. I have some information for him regarding Voldemort."

The man led him into the house. In a room, Petrov sat behind a desk working on something. The man who had brought him here announced, "Mr. Arachnov to meet you Mr. Petrov."

Petrov ushered him in with a wave of his hand while turning to his man, "Makresh, a bottle of firewhiskey and two tumblers please."

Makresh returned a moment later with the fire-whiskey which he deposited on the table and left. After pouring a generous amount in both of the tumblers, he offered one to Arachnov, "This is for you my friend. I can sense you are partly in shock and partly in grief due to something that has happened. Take your time."

After finishing the tumbler, he turned to Petrov, "Vol. Voldemort has arrived."

Petrov's head snapped up, "What? Are you sure? How do you know about it?"

He recited in detail how Voldemort had strolled into his inn, found and tortured Karkaroff and then murdered everyone in the pub. When he was done telling, Petrov's eyes were burning like two miniature suns and his magic was oozing out of him. However when he spoke, he sounded calm, "Thank you for telling me, my friend. You did the right thing by coming here first. I will need to refresh the Vampires' memories and remind them about what will happen if they do not follow my orders. I have been wishing to fight this Voldemort for a long time now."

He allowed Arachnov to go to the local law enforcement to inform them about the massacre but told him to stay out of the public eye until Voldemort was dead or had left the country. Unknowingly, Voldemort had once again come into conflict with the mystics. He would live to rue this day. Petrov wasn't honourable like Harsh or Vari when it came to the rules of duelling. He wouldn't engage him in a duel but a fight. He would fight him with the mystics at his side. He would see how much of a Dark Lord he was when he faced them.

With a clap, he summoned his assistant, "Makresh, inform the boys that we are going out tomorrow. The leeches need a visit again."

Makresh grinned ferally, "A fine goal, Petrov however I don't think they need the reminder."

Petrov smirked, "I know but it always feels good to let them know that they are not above us. In fact most of them run at my sight."

Makresh chuckled, "You are too trigger happy for their taste. For you the best Vampire is a charred Vampire."

Petrov grinned, "Too right."

**Hogwarts**

When they reported to Professor Sprout for their detention, she immediately refused to supervise them. When they insisted that Severus Snape had assigned them to her, she floo called Snape. As his head appeared in her flames, she asked scathingly, "What made you think that you can foist your problems on me, Severus?"

Severus drawled, "Pomona, there is always work which needs to be done in the Greenhouses. I'm sure you can find something to keep them occupied."

She shook her head, "No. I am not having them in another detention with me. Merlin knows I have had them in one time too many this year already. If you want to put them in detention do it yourself."

Severus sighed, "Alright then, I'll assign them something else."

With that, the Professor asked them to leave her in peace and go harass Snape for putting them in detention in the first place. When they reported to Snape's office, he was in conversation with Filch who was downright giddy at the prospect of detention for the students but he blanched when he saw who were being put in his care. He shook his head fervently, "No, Professor. I won't have these infernal brats in detention with me. They would only end up creating more trouble for me."

Harry laughed inwardly at how fervently Filch was shaking his head. He only hoped that Severus wouldn't assign them some menial work like pickling frog brain or something equally disgusting. Mercifully it looked like Snape's dungeons seemed to be well stocked.

When Filch left, Snape pondered over their problem for a while. He thought of the most unique punishment for detention. He turned to them with his lip curling at the edges and sinister glee in his voice, "You will clean every portrait in the school."

They collectively groaned. There had to be hundreds of portraits in the school. Cleaning all of them was going to be tedious fussy work for all them. It was a small mercy that Snape didn't ask them to clean those portraits too which were kept in storage. They also needed help with the detention otherwise that would take too long.

Their predicament was solved in the Room of Requirement that evening. Since Snape could not monitor all of them at once, other students decided that they would put in some effort from their side to help with it. Also use of magic hadn't been forbidden to them so for students to cast scourgify at a portrait while no one was watching was not a big deal. If each student could scourgify 3 portraits, they could be done with it within an hour or two.

Snape was well aware of how much leeway he had given to them. There will be no one constantly supervising the detention for one. They could use magic for the task for another. He also knew that Harry's friends would do their part. He decided that even if he saw some of them helping, he would turn a blind eye to it. He had initially thought that Pomona would assign them something to do and that would be it but she refused. He then thought perhaps Filch would take them but the caretaker refused to face them.

When they started on the detention, Harry's first thought was to get help and get it done with. He had no idea how the portrait cleaning detention would lead to a discovery which would just make things easier for him.

He had divided the six of them between floors and got to work. Harry started on the fifth floor. He was done with cleaning one or two of them when he began to wonder. He knew every portrait depicted some historical event. The subjects of the portraits knew everything that the living person knew at the time the portrait was painted. They also had memory of everything the portrait could see since they were hung. Perhaps, here, was a portrait that could give him a clue to where the diadem is hidden.

He was cleaning a portrait where two wizards were sparring with each other. When the charm passed over the portrait, one of them shouted, "Halt you mongrel! Face my wrath."

Harry was amused, "And what will you do to me? You are just a portrait."

The wizard bristled in indignation, "I will have you know that I was a very important person in my time. I knew all the founders personally."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Big deal. I know a person who knew them since they were little children."

When he started to move to the next portrait, the wizard shouted, "Halt varlet! I, Aaran Ravenclaw challenge ye to a duel."

Harry's voice hitched in his throat, "What did you say?"

The wizard repeated, "I challenge ye to a duel."

"No, No. What is your name?"

The wizard replied again, "Aaran Ravenclaw".

Harry's mind was buzzing, "Are you a relation of Rowena Ravenclaw?"

The wizard puffed out his chest and haughtily replied, "Yea verily! She was my father's great Aunt."

Harry just couldn't believe his luck, "Do you know where her diadem is?"

"Fie knave! Ye also seek the diadem? Intending to use it for your own nefarious purposes I suppose?"

Harry shook his head, "No sir. I don't intend to use it. I just need to find it."

The wizard shook his tiny head, "Nay. I shan't tell unless you best me in a duel."

Harry frowned, "But you are just a collection of pigments somebody painted on a canvas."

The wizard replied, "I am a wizard, you lout. Stand and deliver."

Harry levelled his wand at the portrait and cast a full powered scourgify at the portrait. When the spell took effect, the occupants of the portrait looked scrubbed and pink. Harry asked him, "So did I win?"

The wizard threw his sword on the ground, "Yea wizard. I am vanquished."

Harry prodded him, "Now the diadem? Tell me what you know."

The wizard replied, "There is a likeness of it set on a bust of Rowena Ravenclaw in the Ravenclaw common room. Other than that what I know about it is that Rowena's daughter Helena stole it from her and ran away. Rowena sent a wizard after her to bring her back. But that is all I know."

Harry sighed. It seemed his luck was not about to turn. He further asked, "Do you have any idea who might know its whereabouts?"

The wizard replied, "About 50 years ago, another boy was asking the same thing and I told him the same. But that is all."

Harry decided to ask the headmaster whatever he knew about Helena Ravenclaw. There had to be something that would lead them to the diadem. He knew there was no point in going to see the bust because he already knew what the diadem looked like. He had seen it in Tom's mind.

When he returned to the Common Room that evening, he found Hermione and Ron looking tired. He slipped into a seat near them and asked, "So what happened today?"

Ron exclaimed, "Do you know there are about 200 portraits on the third floor alone. I cleaned about 100 of them."

He looked at Hermione, "How many did you do?"

She replied in a weary voice, "About 100 or so. It was very tiring work. What about you?"

Harry sheepishly grinned, "Oh, I had about 5 students helping me. I didn't have to clean more than 40 or so."

Hermione frowned, "Then where were you all this time?"

"I was looking for something. A certain something that we need to finish the war once and for all."

Hermione knew he was not telling them something but he had started to keep secrets and wouldn't tell them so she did not ask him.

**Headmaster's office**

When Harry reached Dumbledore's office, the old headmaster was reading an old volume. He was so immersed in it that he didn't notice Harry for about a minute. Harry had to bring him out of his musings, "Sir, do you have a few moments to talk?"

Dumbledore smiled the grand-fatherly smile, "Yes, my boy. Tell me what is bothering you?"

"Sir what do you know about Helena Ravenclaw?"

"Helena Ravenclaw?", Dumbledore asked in surprise, "Why do you ask?"

He told him everything that the portrait had told him. When he was done, Dumbledore closed his eyes and collected his thoughts before he started speaking, "There is very little known about Helena Ravenclaw other than what you told me. She was her mother's only child. The main family line ended with her. The Ravenclaw line was carried by Rowena's cousin for about another four generations before it went extinct."

Harry asked him again, "Is it possible that we can summon Helena's spirit through the stone and ask her where the stone is?"

Dumbledore shook his head, "That would be unwise for a lot of reasons, my boy. First we don't know the capabilities of the stone. Second we don't know if she passed on to the other side or is still lingering around. Thirdly, even if she took the diadem she would not know its whereabouts now as you may recall Tom Riddle found it and perverted it."

Harry's shoulders slumped in defeat, "Then I guess there is nothing that we can do? I mean there must be some way."

Dumbledore smiled, "indeed. There must be some way but we just can't put our finger on it."

Harry sighed. It all came down to Tom Riddle in the end. It was certain that Tom had found it after he left Hogwarts. Hogwarts was the only place he was fond of. He must have hidden it somewhere in the castle. Other places which had some meaning to him were either already checked or had ceased to exist so it could not be there. The question was that if the horcrux was at Hogwarts then when did Tom get the opportunity to hide it in the castle?

He turned to Dumbledore, "Professor, did Voldemort ever visit Hogwarts after he graduated?"

Dumbledore frowned in thought then replied, "Now I recall that he had come to visit me on a cold winter night asking for the job of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. I knew his inclination towards the Dark Arts and what he had become so I refused him. I knew he wanted the job to turn the class into his recruiting ground. It would have been just a few years after he left Hogwarts I think. He knew I wouldn't give the job to him yet he chose to travel on a dreary cold winter night to ask me and that is what puzzled me at the time."

Harry said eagerly, "That must have been when he hid that horcrux at Hogwarts. Now what we have to do is find where in the castle it can be. I know there must be a hundred places where it can be hidden but I will put others on it too. A huge cathedral like room stuffed with piles of junk. Where could such a place be in this castle?". Harry produced quill, ink and parchment from his robes and began to draw the room as he had seen it in Tom's mind. "This is how it would have appeared over 40 years ago when he last saw that room." He turned the drawing so that Dumbledore could see it.

Dumbledore smiled brightly, "Let's see if they can come up with something."

When Harry left the headmaster's office, he rolled up the drawing and pocketed it. He knew he had to talk to the others. On his way to the fourth floor, he sent a message to his order.

**Fourth Floor**

When they all convened on the fourth floor, Harry started without preamble, "There is something that the headmaster and I have been looking for. In fact, there is more than one. We have found 5 of them so far. There are two more that we have to acquire before the final battle."

Hermione asked him, "What is it?"

Harry eyed her curiously, "Just one question? Alright you evil pod-person, what have you done with Hermione?"

She glared at him, "Answer the question."

"What I am about to tell you all is secret. It is a secret worth more than all our lives because this will end the war for good one way or the other. These are artefacts that Voldemort created by using the darkest of magics. It is due to them that he did not die the last time he was vanquished. We have been on their trail since last summer when we knew for sure that he had created them."

Hermione asked him, "What are these artefacts? How do you make them?"

Harry shook his head, "Even if I knew exactly how the foul things were made, I would never tell, Hermione. It is the darkest of magics and even the most wretched being would not think of creating one.

What I will tell you is that each one contains a fragment of his soul. He had a total of seven of them. Even one would keep him bound to this plane no matter what happens to his body. This is why nobody has ever succeeded in finishing him off. There is only one remaining that is not in his possession that we have not already found. We have to find it before we take the battle to him."

Hermione asked, "What have you found already?"

He gave a knowing look to Hermione and Ron, "A diary which belonged to Tom Riddle, Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's cup and a ring belonging to House Peverell. The one we are still looking for is Ravenclaw's lost diadem."

Ron asked, "What is a diadem?"

Luna answered, "It is a tiara like thing that one wears on their head. Ravenclaw's diadem was supposed to contain powers to give its user wisdom and wits. It's been missing for centuries. Father has been trying to make a copy of it for years."

It was then a thought occurred to Harry, "Do you know where it might be?"

Luna shook her head, "I've only ever seen the replica of it in our common room."

Hermione asked him, "Do you have any idea where it might be?"

Harry replied, "Yes. As far as we know, it is hidden somewhere in Hogwarts. Exactly where, I don't know. I want you all to brainstorm over a place where we can hide something and it could lie there undisturbed for decades."

Daphne asked him, "So you want us to find a place where a thing can be hidden and lie undetected for decades in a castle which is full of such places and is magical? I mean there are dozens of unused rooms in the dungeons that are stuffed with old junk. Could it be one of those?"

Harry shook his head, "I don't think so. The room we're looking for is huge and above ground." He reached into his robes and pulled out the drawing he had made earlier in Dumbledore's office, "If it's any help, this is what the place looks like."

Susan who had been pondering over everything asked him, "You said there were 5 things you had found but you named only four. Which is the fifth?"

Harry was hoping that no one would catch onto his omission but now that Susan had, all were looking at him expectantly. He said in an off-handed manner, "It has already been taken care of and it's inconsequential. We need to find the diadem."

Ron asked him, "What about the seventh?"

"Its Voldemort's great snake, Nagini. When we are in the final battle, one of you will have to kill it if I can't get to it first."

They all gathered around to get a good look at the ink sketch Harry had laid out on the table. Hermione observed that the place must be above ground because there was light coming in through the windows. Neville remarked that the place was nearly the size of a football pitch.

When everyone was on their way, Harry asked Luna to stay back. He had sent Susan away too because he didn't want anyone else to know about Luna's special talent. When they were alone, he asked her, "Luna, Do you have any idea where the diadem might be hidden?"

She stared off into space for a few moments before she answered, "I'm sorry, Harry. It feels like something is preventing me from seeing it."

Harry was impressed that Luna had such control of her gift that she was able to give him a reading so quickly. He asked her, "Do you know anything about Helena Ravenclaw?"

Luna sighed, "I was thinking you would ask me about her. The byangoma told me to tell you to ask Nearly Headless Nick. He might be able to help you. Also, when it is time, the twins may know something that they aren't telling."

Before she could go, he asked her for another favour, "Luna, would you like to do another interview with me? There is something important that I have to talk about."

She agreed instantly, "Yes! Meet with me tomorrow in the Room of Requirement after supper."

With that she skipped away.

**Romania**

The mystics knew where the vampires lived. They appeared near their homes and the vampires who were on the lookout instantly ran away to their Coven to inform them that the bane of their existence had arrived. The Vampires didn't know about the mystics in general, but they knew and feared Petrov by reputation. He had killed so many of them that the mere mention of his name was enough to cause panic among them.

There were three mystics in the lead who were flinging ward breaking stones through the air and three others who were detonating them to destroy the war wards which they had erected around their place. The Vampires preferred to live in an underground cavern where sunlight never reached. They didn't need light to find their way in their abode.

The cavern was enormous and pitch-black with not a hint of light in it. When the mystics entered, they took an arrow head formation with those in the front having their wand tips light while others were ready to begin casting at the first hint of movement in the shadows. It was the first time that the mystics had entered into their cavern. The leeches were over-confident that they could take on the handful of wizards and defeat them.

They started crowding around the mystics as they moved in the cavern. They knew that they were out of the wand-light so they could not be seen. They thought they could take the mystics by surprise. What they didn't count upon was the mystic's other senses. Even though vampires have no heart-beat nor do they breathe, they still made rustling noises and displaced air as they moved. No ordinary human would have heard it, but the mystics are not ordinary.

Petrov who was in the middle of them whispered, "Chakra formation facing outwards with 'tamari'. 5 of you remain in the centre and take on those who are at the roof of the cavern. As I give the signal, cast at your full strength and don't let one of them escape."

The mystics who were a well oiled war machine immediately got into formation and they all turned off their wands. The Vampires thought it was their moment. They were about to lunge when a wand light appeared in the middle of the wizards huddled together. Not a second later, there was a roar of "Tamari" and the cave was filled with light as bright and searing as the sunlight incinerating all of them who were within its range. Most of them were burned to a crisp while a few were on fire and dying slowly.

The mystics however were unrelenting and casting in every direction they could. It went on for about 30 seconds and 30 Vampires were dead. Their leader realised his folly and shouted, "Stop! We surrender. Have mercy on us."

Petrov put his wand to his throat and said, "I want your leader to meet me outside within the next 2 minutes and do not try to play games with me or it will be the last thing you ever do."

The mystics walked out in single file while the vampires cowered in fear. Their strategy had come back to bite them on the back-side. There was no option but to go and meet these wizards who were merciless.

He selected a contingent of about 5 of his men to accompany him. When he came out, he found that the mystics had their wands pointed at the entrance of the cavern. They were ready to cast at the slightest hint of movement.

Petrov walked forward nonchalantly, his wand in his wand holster and said, "I presume you all know me by now. I don't care for your un-lives. I would gladly end your half-existence if it were up to me however my master does not want you all dead."

The leader of the Vampires asked, "What do you want, hunter? Have you not killed enough of us?"

Petrov said harshly, "You died the day you were turned. Your soul died that day and your body continuing to walk around mocks the person you once were. What I am doing is essentially liberating you from your agony however I digress. I came here to ask you something."

"What?"

Petrov took his time to answer, "I presume that all of you have heard of Voldemort?"

When the leader nodded, he continued, "I have it from my most trusted sources that Voldemort is now in Transylvania. He killed an inn full of wizards just the other day. The reason for his visit is to recruit the Vampires to his cause. I know you have once refused to his envoy but he thinks he can persuade you to join them. I presume you know what you have to do?"

The Vampire replied, "Yes. You want us to keep him here and report to you while we pretend to deliberate upon his offer."

Petrov grinned, "I knew you would see sense."

The Vampire asked him, "What if we don't inform you?"

Petrov's face spread in a predatory grin, "Then your continued existence will be of no use to me. I will then destroy your coven to the last leech and I will enjoy doing it. If you want to play it that way, I am all for it. Also if you try to commit to him, a worse fate awaits you because then I will have a bounty placed on your coven and then every bounty hunter in the world will be looking for you. The choice is yours."

The Vampires knew he could do what he said. Petrov had never boasted and he alone could deal with 10 of them at once. With so many of his comrades behind him, he could kill all the Vampire covens. He nodded, "We will send you a message with a bat."

Petrov threw a gold ring with a prominent blood-red ruby to the vampire, "A bat would take too long to reach me. When he arrives, drip a single drop of blood into the gem and I will be along shortly." Also inform your brethren in other covens and tell them about the consequences of their failure to inform me because trust me, I will know if you try to lie to me."

**The interview**

Harry met Luna in the Room of Requirement with Susan at his side. It wasn't like he was trying to hide this from her. He wanted Susan to be there with him for everything that he did. When he had started courting her, he had decided that unless it was something that could not be told to her he would not keep information from her.

When Luna arrived with a notepad and a quill for the interview, Harry apprehensively asked her, "You don't have any quick quotes quill? Do you?"

Luna smiled brightly, "I don't use tricks worthy of the bug, Harry. This is a dictation which will only record what you are telling to me. Other than that it will record nothing. Also when I am done, I will give you a copy before this is sent to print. Deal?"

Harry nodded, "That's fine by me."

"So, what's this all about?"

Harry took some moments to collect his thoughts before he started speaking, "It's actually more like a conversation where you can ask me any questions you want. Then you can reduce it to an interview form and send it to print."

She nodded, "So what do you want to talk about?"

He replied grimly, "The war!"

She nodded, "So Harry we all know that you fought the wizard Tom Riddle otherwise known as Voldemort in the ministry. Did you feel scared?"

Harry chuckled, "Asking the hard questions first, Luna? Alright, I will tell you how I felt. When I was training to duel, I was taught that it is natural to be a little scared. When you are scared you don't rush into things but you are always cautious in dealing with things. If I would say that I was bold as brass when I faced Voldemort then I would be lying. I was a little scared because he has delved into dark arts deeper than anyone ever has. He has the experience of several decades on me. Being scared is natural for everyone. If someone thinks that they are a coward because they are scared then they are wrong. Real courage is being afraid and even then doing what's right anyway."

She nodded, "That was very thoughtful, Harry. Alright when you were duelling with him what were the thoughts in your mind?"

"When I duelled with him, I was thinking of my family and my friends. I knew that this could very well be the last duel of my life but I was fighting for everyone out there who even has a small bit of faith in me. I was fighting for the old man who had told me that he trusted me when I was telling the world that Voldemort was back and not many people were ready to believe me. I fought for those who adopted me as one of their own without any expectations from me. I fought for my future which I have dreamt of with a very beautiful witch I intend to marry someday."

Luna smiled, "The nargles are telling me that this was a beautiful thing you just said, Harry. Now the next question is, 'Do you trust our ministry to be competent to deal with the threat posed by Tom Riddle and his followers?'"

Harry nodded, "General Longbottom has my complete confidence. He is one very competent leader. He will lead us to victory against Tom and his followers. I know people may have been questioning about the state of things but he is trying everything in his power to contain the menace. It is thanks to his foresight that we now have such capable Aurors who can deal with death eaters. You might have noticed Luna that we have suffered heavy casualties only where the victims were helpless muggle folks. As soon as the Aurors arrive, these cowards turn tail and run. They are not men but spineless cowards who are no better than terrorists. The only difference is that even a terrorist has some misguided principles while the death eaters are generally driven by their greed and lust for power."

She nodded, "The byangoma agree with you on this Harry. Do muggle lives matter to you?"

Harry nodded, "Muggle lives matter to all of us, Luna. We are not the sole inheritors of earth but muggles are the same as us with the only difference being that they use technology instead of magic."

She replied, "I echo your sentiments, Harry. However we have seen how many muggles have died recently in the death eater raids. The ministry is always trying to contain it but it does not seem to be making much headway. What do you have to say about that?"

"Since the muggles cannot use magic to defend themselves, it is our duty to protect them."

She arched an eye-brow, "How?"

"Most of our community particularly half-bloods or so-called muggle-born live in and around muggle communities. Thanks to the International secrecy treaty, any magical activity outside of a magical home in a muggle neighbourhood is likely death eaters. The witches and wizards who live among the muggles could set up detection wards so that any magical activity would get their attention right away. Bye detecting and reporting that to the ministry before an attack even begins; they could summon the Aurors and save countless lives. I appeal to every witch and wizard who believes in the cause of the light to protect and watch over their neighbours in every way they can. The Ministry is ready to help."

With that the interview was ended. When Luna was about to go, Harry pulled a photograph and stopped her, "Luna will you send a copy to the Daily Prophet too with this photograph? I appreciate your help."

She smiled brightly, "Of course Harry Potter."

When she was gone, Susan turned to him, "That was very good, Harry. I have trained you well."

Harry grinned, "I always try to fulfil your expectations, my lady."

She smiled coyly, "I think that deserves some reward for being a good student, Mr. Potter. Does it not?"

Harry pulled her in a embrace and started kissing her deeply.

**A/N- while after writing a chapter for you all, I don't really have to ask for it but maybe I can get more than a handful of reviews? Its all that I strive for when I present a new chapter to all of you. **

**Stay inside and stay safe in this pandemic. We will overcome. We are humans, the most resilient creatures on earth. :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Cottage on the Hill**

The Order of the Phoenix was having its meeting. This meeting was not of an urgent nature so many of the members were not there. In fact it was only called to update everyone about what was going on in the war and what the other side was up to.

Albus was presiding over the meeting, "Do any of you have anything important to report?"

Severus supplied, "They have decided to unleash the werewolves. From now on, you can count on werewolves to be part of any attack."

Alastor growled, "Let the mongrels come."

Albus cautioned him, "We don't know what strategy they are employing or where they will be attacking so proceed with caution in respect to them."

Sirius spoke, "What about Harry? Do we tell him if any attack is happening?"

Remus said, "I have already promised him that I will let him know. He is a very capable hunter."

Alastor agreed, "That he is. But he also makes a mess of them. I have seen him kill so many of them with just a sword with such ease that it made me wish that I knew how to swing one."

There was another thing that they needed to talk about. It was Sturgis Podmore who brought their attention to it, "Albus, why doesn't the Order help the Aurors with containing the death eaters? I mean we helped in the last war. We can still help them."

Dumbledore nodded, "Indeed. We will have to form teams, get them to work in coordination with the ministry. Also get in touch with the muggle born population and see if you can't persuade a couple of them to help us out?"

**The Leaky Cauldron**

The Leaky Cauldron was abuzz with the news today. Incidentally the news was the same as had appeared in the Quibbler. It was an interview with the famous wizard known as Harold Peverell also known as the chosen one. The interview was much better than all the garbage that Rita had published during all of last year. The wizarding public had been feeling scared for their lives with the death eater activities on the rise however this article had assuaged many of their concerns. Yes, they hardly trusted the ministry but Fudge wasn't there anymore, spouting his pure-blood tripe while allowing the death eaters to do whatever they pleased. It was one of their most respected citizens, a war hero Frank Jeremy Longbottom who was handling the war effectively. Yes the war was getting ugly and unfortunately muggles were dying but the ministry was doing everything in its power to retaliate. When the death eaters tried to take on the Aurors they were defeated thoroughly. Just about a week ago, one of the most barbaric henchmen of the pretender Tom Riddle had been killed in a gruesome way with a lot of other death eaters. They didn't need to be scared; their ministry was taking care of them.

"The lad wants us to risk our lives for muggles", one of the patrons said to his companion, "but shouldn't we save ourselves first?"

His companion frowned, "You know, he makes a good point. We should try to help them who are not so gifted as we are. Imagine what would happen if Harold Peverell decided that he no longer wish to fight our war. What then? Do you think anyone else has a chance of defeating You-Know-Who?"

One of the patrons at the nearby table concurred, "He has lost so much to the Dark yet he fights for us. It's the least that we can do for him."

Another patron who was at the bar asked Tom, "What do you say, Tom? Can we believe him?"

Tom nodded, "I saw him for the first time when he was eleven years old. He is every inch the wizard that they claim he is. If he were to ask me I would do anything for him."

Octavius Ryne who was sitting at a table in the corner had a ghost of a smile on his lips. He understood the reference to the old wizard in the interview and resolved that he will try to help in any way he could. He didn't have much more life left anyhow. Why not do something worth while with what he had left.

**Weasley Manor **

Molly Weasley was reading the interview with interest. When she was done, she turned to Arthur, "How can anyone help Arthur? I mean if one does not know enough defensive magic then how can they help in the war effort?"

Arthur genially smiled, "Harry's not asking every witch and wizard to stand and fight with death eaters, Molly. That would be terminally unwise for most people. The way most people can help is to alert the ministry the moment they see or suspect any death eater activity. They can help in lots of other ways too. You know, St. Mungo's is over-crowded now. Most of the patients are being discharged due to lack of availability of healers. Those who can do some primary healing can help deal with the workload. If they cannot work as healers, they can help brew potions for the hospital or assist the staff with caring for the daily needs of the patients."

She nodded, "I was thinking that I have some free time when I am not otherwise occupied with preparing for Bill's wedding. May be I can go and offer my services to the hospital for two or three hours a day?"

Arthur smiled brightly, "Now that's what I'm talking about, Molly."

As Arthur and Molly were discussing how they could help their world in the war against the worst Dark Lord ever, wizards up and down the country were meeting in private to discuss the interview.

**Hestia's hearth**

In Hestia's Hearth, the local wizards were crowded in the courtyard to discuss what they could do to help with the war. There were many muggle-born and half-bloods among them. Needless to say, they saw Harold Peverell as their champion against the bigoted pureblood tripe. They would follow his word even if they never heard a word of thanks from him about it.

One of the patrons was conversing with Mr. O'Neil, "What do you think we can do to help the muggles?"

Mr. O'Neil replied, "We can help in a lot of ways. If we see an attack happening on muggles, we can alert the ministry. If the death eaters are not in large numbers then we can try to engage them. We can always set some protective enchantments around our homes and if someone tries to breach them, we would know."

Another one replied, "We have seen that they like to attack at places where the muggles gather. That is where they can cause the most damage and escape before the Aurors arrive. We can form small groups among us who can keep an eye on those places from afar. If there is an attack, we can apparate to the ministry to inform them."

The third said, "Don't they always wear those shiny masks so that people wouldn't see their faces? If you see anyone with a mask on his face around your house, don't hesitate in calling the ministry."

Another one said, "They feed on our fear. If we stop fearing them and do our bit then we can stop this menace before it grows into a raging inferno."

**Ministry of Magic**

Frank was stumped. He had not really expected this. Yes he had been wishing to ask a favour from Harry but he had not voiced his request yet. Still, he was glad that Harry had done it. May be the public would rise up to the challenge and help the ministry tackle this menace. This way they would be able to respond quickly.

Moody strode into the Minister's office with the morning paper tucked under his arm. He unfurled it and placed the front page before Frank's eyes on his desk, "Have you read this?"

Frank replied, "Yes, Alastor, I have. I am pleasantly surprised. These are the words of one who has faced Tom. He is neither proud nor stupid nor is he asking anyone to do something stupid. It's all good, sensible advice about how ordinary citizens can help with the war effort. It's encouraging our people to go out and help the non-magical folk. Even so, I wouldn't be surprised if we see ordinary people banding together to take down some death eaters. If they do not fear and take sensible precautions who know what they can do."

Alastor growled, "That won't happen. These vermin always come in packs so a single muggle-born wizard would not be able to stand up to them. The best we can hope for is to have them inform us about any attack and putting some protections around their places and their neighbours. With them chipping in their help, they can even put wards around their homes and charge them from time to time."

Frank nodded, "And not all death eaters can break wards so they would be hard pressed to go beyond the protective enchantments giving us time to get to them."

Alastor grinned widely which made his face more hideous, "I feel like this is going to be fun."

**Hogwarts**

The students were reading the interview with interest until another article at the bottom of the page caught their attention.

_"Voldemort Attacks a Wizarding Inn, 20 Dead_

_Two days ago, an inn in the Transylvania region of Romania was attacked by Voldemort aka Tom Riddle. The sole survivor Mr. Antyonus, the barkeeper of the inn says that he witnessed the slaughter. He managed to escape the notice of the dark wizard by means of hiding behind the bar until the whole ordeal was over. He also witnessed that Voldemort abducted one Igor Karkaroff, former Headmaster of Durmstrang, who has been missing since the end of the Triwizard Tournament last summer. _

_The DMLE of Romania refused to comment on the matter. They would only say that they were conducting an investigation into the matter. They were hopeful of capturing Tom Riddle so that he could face the consequences for his crime._

_With him being sighted in Romania, it raises the pertinent questions- Is he looking for more followers? Is he working on two fronts and trying to capture two territories at once? What will the ministry do in case he finds more supporters and this blood war blows up into a full fledged international war like the Grindelwald war?"_

When he was done reading the paper, Harry lowered it and sighed, "He is a butcher. The sooner we can put him down, the better it will be."

Hermione asked him, "Have you found any clue about the diadem thing?"

Harry shook his head, "Not really. I mean I have some leads to pursue but I am not very hopeful that something good will come out of it."

"Why?"

"Because it was missing for hundreds of years before it was found and hidden again. The last known holder of it before Tom Riddle was Helena and she has been dead for centuries now. As for Tom, he isn't my best mate that I can just stroll up to him and ask him, 'mate, where did you hide the diadem thingy.'"

It was then that inspiration hit him. Luna had told him to ask Sir Nicholas about Helena. Rowena had sent a wizard to bring back Helena. What if Nick knew who the wizard was or if he knew whether Helena had passed on to the other side or still lingered? That would tell him a lot about the possible locations of the diadem.

He couldn't pursue the thought right now. One thing was clear, he would have to see Nick at the earliest opportunity. He thought he could also call a meeting of his Order to see if they could come up with places where the thing could be hidden.

Sending a message for a meeting on the 4th floor after classes, he left to attend the first class of the day.

**4th floor**

When they all met on the 4th floor, Harry started speaking, "As you all know, I am trying to find the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. I have called this meeting to see if any of you can come up with places where it can be hidden."

Hermione was sitting with a parchment, quill and ink to write down every place they named.

Ron was the first to offer a suggestion, "What about the chamber of Secrets?"

Harry shook his head, "Sorry, Ron. I've been back down there and given the place a thorough going over. Once I cleared out the carcass of the great snake and all the detritus it left behind, there was nothing else there. Besides, the last time he visited the castle, he only had a few minutes to hide the thing and leave. I don't think he could have opened the chamber, hidden it there and gotten out again in that time."

Susan asked, "What about a room which has not been opened in years?"

Harry nodded, "The castle has a few of those. We can check them, I reckon. I will have to divide them up between you. You will have to go in teams of two or more. If one of you stumbles upon it, the soul piece in it will try to seduce you to do it's bidding through your hidden desires or by awakening your deepest fears."

The twins asked, "What about the Room of Requirement? I mean it can change shape for the user, right? Once it turned into a broom cupboard where we hid to escape from Filch."

It was like realisation dawned upon Harry at that moment. The magic on the Room of Requirement was so complex that nobody really understood it properly. How it could change shape as per the fancies of its user was only anybody's guess. How it could summon things from other places or produce them from nothing? Perhaps he would need to see Vikram and find out if they could unravel the magic. Filing it for his personal investigation later, he asked everyone, "Any other places you can think of?"

Daphne said, "I have heard something about the Archives of Hogwarts. Do you think it could be hidden there?"

Hermione asked her, "Do you believe it is real? Even Hogwarts: A history doesn't have anything about it."

Harry turned to her, "Just because it is not in a book does not mean it is not real. I have heard from some trusted sources that the Archives do exist but their access is restricted to the current Headmaster only. No one except him knows about its location or what it contains. I can ask Professor Dumbledore to look, but I think that if it was there, he would have found it long ago."

The meeting was ended with him telling all of them to keep an eye on everything around them and to brainstorm some more. May be, one of them would get lucky.

**The Chamber of Secrets**

When Harry arrived in the Chamber, he found Vikram in a pleasant mood. As Harry had learned last summer, a mystic in a pleasant mood did not bode well for him. He cautiously asked, "Professor, what has you in such a good mood?"

Vikram grinned, "Petrov is about to find Voldemort."

Harry gasped, "How? I mean where? When?"

Vikram chuckled, "he has made a deal with the Vampires that if Voldemort came recruiting then they would let him know. Petrov isn't hindered by ethics so he intends to take on Voldemort with the entire mystic force in Romania and hunt him down. They would try to capture him and hand him over to the ministry. That way, we can find the horcrux at our leisure and may not have to fight a battle after all."

Harry nodded, "That sounds too good to be true, Professor. I will wait for any more news on the matter and in the meanwhile I will keep training my Order. If we get him then it will be better. If we don't then we'll have to fight the final battle after all."

**London**

Witches and wizards all over the length and breadth of the country were placing protective wards around their homes and those of their muggle neighbours to protect them in case of a death eater attack.

Many muggle-born and half-bloods were getting floo connections installed in their homes so that they could contact the ministry quickly. They had all taken the word of their hero to heart. They would do anything to help them.

Mr. O'Neil was busy putting a network together of his trusted friends who would keep an eye out around London and the surrounding suburbs. Any suspicious activity would be reported to the ministry by them directly while they would also go to try and help the ministry anyway they could.

**Rosier Estate**

Moody emerged from the fireplace at the Rosier Estate and gave a curt nod to Moony, "Lupin, I want a word."

Remus nodded, "Sure. What do you want, Alastor?"

"I'm sure that you have heard that Greyback is releasing his pets. I don't need to impress upon you the threat that werewolves present to wizards. I am reluctant to send only Aurors in case there are werewolves around."

Remus nodded, "What do you want from me?"

"I have heard that you have an army of werewolves. I thought maybe I can enlist you and your men into the Aurors."

Remus nodded then answered as if every word cost him, "your information is correct, Moody. I am in command of quite a few werewolves who have a better life under my care. They also wish to do their part to stop Tom and his associates. But there are a couple of reasons why we can't accept your offer. First, there is a great deal of mistrust where the afflicted are concerned. We don't need the distraction of a bunch of superstitious, possibly trigger happy wizards when we're fighting for our lives. Second, most of them were turned when they were very young and denied any kind of magical education. They don't know any magic and wouldn't be any help in a fight against wand wielding death eaters. Nor would they make good trainees at the Auror academy. And third, I'm Harry's steward now. I have a lot of obligations to him and his business interests. I just don't have the time for Auror training now."

Moody grunted, "So, you won't help us then?"

Remus hastily said, "That's not what I said, Alastor. We can't join you as Aurors. The way werewolves fight is just too different. If you need us, get a portkey to me any way you can. We'll be there faster than you can blink. This is the best I can do considering the circumstances. Take it or leave it."

Alastor thought it over for a few moments before he agreed. After all something was always better than nothing. And if he knew Remus, and he did, Those werewolves would be one effective team when they did show up.

**The Room of Requirement**

This morning, when the students woke up in the pre-dawn darkness, they all found a bundle on the foot of their beds. Opening the bundle, they could see it was some kind of armour with a letter in it which read:

_"Dear __

_The armour in this bundle is a gift from me. It is made from Basilisk hide which is resistant to almost all spells except for the killing curse. It will be able to protect you in battle. These pieces were made with an altering rune worked into them. They will fit themselves to you perfectly to allow maximum freedom of movement and comfort. I hope they will serve you well when the final battle comes._

_Harold Peverell"_

This was a surprise to most of them. They had only heard about such things but had not seen them. With these to protect their body, they would be better protected than they could be otherwise. When the students got to compare notes, they quickly realized that the suits of armour had only been gifted to those who had volunteered to be fighters and defenders. The students who had decided to help with the healing and evacuation would have to resort to other means for personal protection.

When the students finished their morning run around the lake that morning, they were quickly divided up by groups into fighters, healers and evacuators. From there, they were divided up into teams of five with one in each group designated as being in charge. For the squad leaders, Harry mostly followed the recommendations that Hermione had put together, but where he had seen people with a better grasp of tactics, he made exceptions. It probably wasn't any coincidence that most of the squad leaders were also Quidditch players. Harry placed Daphne in charge of training the healers. He found that she was quite knowledgeable when it came to potions and healing spells. Although Fred and George were practically unbeatable in a fight, Harry put them in charge of training the evacuators. Their unequalled knowledge of the secret passages of the castle was sure to give them an advantage in any evacuation scenario. Finally, Neville, Hermione and Ron were put in charge of training the fighters. Hermione's role was to correct spell casting, pronunciation and form. Neville was to teach the more powerful offensive spells and Ron's job was to teach tactics.

With everybody organized, Harry addressed them, '"You all did a lot better during the run this morning. It seems that what we learned before the weather closed down is coming back to you. That's great. But now, we have to get to the next level. The run is going to be part of the routine for as long as I have anything to say about it. Each and every one of you must know how to shield, dodge and block. Every one of you must be as fit as you can possibly be. For the rest of it, we will be divided up according to our specialization. This has two purposes. First, you need to learn the spells specific to your specialization, how to use them and when. Second, we have been a pretty casual group when it comes to taking orders. From now on, there is a formal chain of command. When your commander gives an order, it is time to act, not time to argue, deliberate or generally goof off. Not just your life, but the lives of your team mates and the people you are defending depend on it. Going forward, we will have a playbook. A single word will inform you what to do in any combat situation. You will learn every formation and action in that playbook until you can execute an order without thinking. That is how we will beat anyone we are up against. Commanders, take your teams and start training."

With that, the twins took their squads and disappeared into the castle. Daphne took her teams and started teaching them how to heal open wounds first. She told them that they would also be learning basic diagnostics, healing broken bones and how to conjure and levitate stretchers. Looking at the fighters, she hinted that they might be getting some practical training today so they didn't go far.

Harry conjured a series of practice dummies for the fighters. What he didn't tell them was that these cast a convincing looking replica of the killing curse. It was just a modified colour spell with sound effects added. What's more, the dummies would get progressively harder to fight as time went on until each one of them would be like fighting Harry on a bad day. Of course, they did not have the power that Harry could cast with but with the ley-lines around the castle, they were self-powered.

With Ron, Neville, Hermione and Harry observing, the squads attacked the practice dummies in teams of five. The first team was doing fine until the dummies roared, "Avada Kedavra!", in unison and the green jets came roaring at them.

Harry Neville and their squad leader all shouted, "Birds!" Three of the squad just stood there in shock as the green jets struck them. The squad leader and one other conjured canaries to take the blows for them.

Harry waved his wand to stop the dummies, "60% casualties!" He pointed at the three, "You are all dead. If you ever have to face death eaters for real, they will use the killing curse. Count on it. We've gone over this before so you have no excuse. Three more laps around the lake for the three of you and then hit the showers. If you can't conjure an object to block this curse, don't bother showing up tomorrow. Dismissed!"

The three took off at a run and didn't look back.

Harry turned back to the rest of the fighters, "If you don't know how to conjure or summon anything to block a killing curse, raise your hand now."

Harry watched and counted as ten hands went up. He shook his head in frustration, "All right you lot. Get with Hermione and work on that right now. The rest of you, form up into squads again and get in line.

One at a time, the squads went up against the practice dummies. When Harry could see that they were having too easy a time of it, he flicked his wand and the dummies upped the anti. As each team eventually went down to defeat, Harry directed them to work with Ron or Neville, depending on where they needed the most work. The groups that needed work learning how to follow orders, Harry took on himself.

At the end of the morning practice session, Hermione reported that her group were all able to do a passable summoning charm but they needed to work at it some more. She assigned them all homework and dismissed them. Harry sent out a message on the wand holsters for everybody to hit the showers so that they would have time to be ready for breakfast.

As they headed back into the castle, Hermione caught up with Harry, "You were awfully hard on them Harry."

Harry hissed out through his teeth before answering, "Hermione, I know. It's just that I'm afraid that if they don't take this seriously enough, we're going to lose a lot of good friends when it comes down to the final battle. We only have maybe a matter of weeks to prepare and we really need years." He turned to face her, "And what's worse. I feel like if even one of them dies, it's my fault! Do you have any idea how that feels?"

Hermione bit her lower lip as she tried to hold back the tears, "Yes, Harry. I do. You are not alone."

Ron, with his gift for perfect timing, spoke up, "That's right, mate. We do know how it feels. For good or ill, we're with you all the way. We're doing everything humanly possible to help our friends survive what's coming."

Harry pulled the two of them into a hug, "Thanks. Ever since that first day on the train, you have both been my best mates. Thanks for that."

That was when Susan reminded Harry, "Come along, tall, dark and handsome. We're going to be late for breakfast."

**Romania**

Voldemort was deciding upon his next course of action. He had spent three days working on Karkaroff. At the end of the first four or five hours, Voldemort didn't bother to keep track of time, Karkaroff's mind, broken beyond all repair, had given up all of its secrets. Voldemort spent the rest of the time, pleasuring himself by torturing what was left of the body and spirit of the man who had once been one of his death eaters. The wretched soul cried out like a wounded animal as Voldemort tortured him again and again. Finally, when the mass of broken flesh would never regain consciousness again, Voldemort ended its wretched existence.

When he had first caught the traitor, Voldemort only thought to avenge himself for the faithful death eaters he had betrayed, to make an example of him. Karkaroff had tried to ask for mercy but Voldemort was done giving boons to his followers. The dark lord once had granted a boon to one that he favoured, that he thought to be faithful beyond all question and that boon had cost him his body, 12 years of wraith like existence and indescribable pain.

He also learned through Igor's memory that Dumbledore had vouched for Severus at Igor's mercy hearing. Severus was the true double agent who kept the old fool blinded to his true loyalty. At a point Igor had offered for Voldemort to recruit former students of Durmstrang for his army but Voldemort had no interest in that now. Igor Karkaroff was that one player who would always sell his loyalty to the most powerful player in the field and he could not afford anymore traitors.

For now, he knew that he could find the Vampires through a local wizard who supplied them with live animals. Since the Government didn't allow them to drink blood from a human, they had to make do with what they could get. In fact the magical government had in the past destroyed a coven of Vampires because they had violated the law and turned a few humans. That was the final lesson and they knew better from that time on.

**Hunting the Vampires**

This wizard who sold them animals lived in a farm house which was set at a great distance from other places. His farmhouse had no sort of wards or any protection. Since he was not a criminal nor did he have anything valuable, it was clear that he didn't need to fear anything at all.

However, he was horrified when he saw the most dreaded Dark Lord walking up the path to his farm house as if he were taking a walk in the garden. He didn't even know any defensive magic to have any hope of escaping. With the fear that was in his mind, he didn't even dare to disapparate. He could get splinched or maybe get nowhere at all.

He decided to do what a man in his position could do. When Voldemort came up to him, he fell at the dark lord's feet and grabbed the hem of his robes with shaking hands, "Mercy! Mercy!"

Voldemort picked the man up and said in his sickly sweet voice, "I am not here to end your pitiful life. I am here to ask you to take me to the vampires. I know that you are their source for supplying them with blood."

The man was inwardly relieved. He was not about to die today after all. However if Voldemort destroyed the vampires, his source of gold would dry up. In the end, the concern for his life won, "I will take you to them gladly, my lord. They have set a meeting place where I deliver the animals to them. By fortune I was to supply them with some fresh blood this evening."

Voldemort drawled sickeningly, "Then let us not tarry."

About an hour later, the herder was standing at the place where the vampires met him usually. Voldemort decided to stay hidden in the shadows and to come out after they showed up. After about 10 minutes, a party of 10 vampires made their way towards him. He was surprised with this. Usually there were only 2 or 3 of them.

He asked the one in the lead, "Has something happened?"

The vampire asked him stiffly, "Why do you ask?"

"Usually there are only 2 or 3 of you. Are you expecting an attack so you come in strength?"

The vampire made a casual glance toward the shadow where Voldemort thought himself to be hidden, "We have powerful enemies about these days. We choose to take precautions."

This was curious. Did the Vampires already know that Voldemort had arrived? Hesitantly he asked, "What happened?"

The Vampire bared his fangs, "It is of no concern to you. Just some monster hunters and a dark lord, that's all. Nothing that we can't handle. Keep your nose out of our business and we will be fine."

The wizard nodded and was about to leave when suddenly raked up by some guilt, he murmured, "Sorry to have sold you out."

It was nothing more than a whisper, but a Vampire's sense of hearing is very keen. They heard every word of it.

The one in the lead grabbed him by the throat and put a pointed finger nail at an artery while threatening him, "Who did you sell us out to?"

The wizard paled with horror and could not speak. He was sure that he would be dead the next minute when there was a bang and the vampire holding him was thrown off.

At a distance behind him was Voldemort who was gliding towards him with his wand raised and lips curling at the end. To their eyes, the mockery of humanity that was the dark lord's body might have been one of their own if it were not for his silted pupils. But no, this creature had a heartbeat and blood that flowed, neither did he smell of the crypt as their brethren did. Whatever he was, he was alone and he didn't seem to be moving too quickly. Vampires are nothing if not proud. They should have all run to let the vampire hunter know that Voldemort was among them but instead they decided to pit their supernatural strength and speed against a lone wizard.

Two of them grabbed the traitor wizard between them and took off at a run. The other Vampires swarmed the wizard with speed impossible for a human eye to follow. But Voldemort was no ordinary human. His would be assailants crashed into each other where he had been standing a moment before. As he appeared in the air above them, dark cutters rained down on them, causing them to lose the precious blood that sustained their unlife. They quickly scattered and produced silver daggers from inside their robes. The dark wizard had to think fast to shield himself from the barrage of deadly projectiles. Flicked with the inhuman speed that the leeches possessed, the daggers were as deadly as any cross-bow or rifle for that matter. As the daggers bounced off his shield, Voldemort summoned them to his hand and banished them in a line at the vampires, one after another. The deadly projectiles were dodged for the most part, but the ones that struck home punctured the vampires causing further loss of the sustaining fluid. They all knew that vampires cannot be destroyed this way, but if they lost all their blood, they would become torpid and unable to move. If the morning sun found them in the open, it would be all over for them.

After a time, it became obvious that Voldemort was not interested in killing the leeches. They could not serve him if they were dead. The six who remained upon their feet took up their two torpid companions and fled at a speed that would make an Olympic athlete jealous. There was no reason for them to stay and fight Voldemort. They could not defeat him. They could travel swiftly to a great distance and were sure that they would outrun Voldemort but to their woe, he could fly and keep up with them at that pace.

With a look of understanding, 4 of the Vampires separated and turned to engage Voldemort again. They knew that they would not survive but they could buy time for their fellow Vampires to get away with the wizard and their two downed companions between them.

Voldemort had no concern for the wizard himself. He had been planning to kill him anyway, leaving no witnesses. If the leeches drained him to satisfy their thirst, it would save him the trouble of killing the man himself. The way they ran away from him cost him some effort to keep up with them. His goal, after all, was to meet with their leader in their lair and recruit them to his cause. He couldn't do that if they managed to get away from him. Now, four of the pestilential things were turning to face him. They couldn't possibly be hoping to defeat him. No, they were trying to delay him. "Bombarda Maxima!", he muttered as he gave his wand a casual flick. The vampires erupted into a cloud of rapidly expanding bits when the spell hit them. Voldemort didn't even bother to slow down as he flew over the grewsome mess. With another flick of his wand, he concealed himself under a disillusionment charm. No, it wasn't perfect invisibility, especially at the speed he was flying, but the fleeing vampires were hardly taking the time to search the sky behind them.

**Hogwarts**

The goblins had arrived. Today was the day for inheritance tests. All of the muggle-born had gathered in the Great Hall. The heirs of the pureblood families who were sponsoring students were there also to see the results of the tests for themselves. Among the few fifth years taking the test was Dean Thomas from Gryffindor. Harry had agreed to sponsor him. There were also Justin Finch Fletchely, Oliver Rivers, Kevin Entwhile, Mandy Brocklehurst and Sally Anne-Perks. Other than them everyone already knew their inheritances. Of the fifth years, only Dean had approached him to be sponsored. When Harry asked him why he didn't go to Seamus, Dean replied that Seamus didn't have the gold nor did the family have the reputation that would help him to rebuild his house in case his family was defunct.

Other than them, the other prominent students who had come to Harry included the Creevey Brothers (Arthur had kindly told them that since his was a cadet line they would do better to go to his Liege lord), some more of the 4th years who had been given options but they chose Harry for obvious reasons. Every student who was willing to sponsor had a decent number of candidates they could sponsor however Harry had the most of them. Out of a total of 300 muggle-born students who were doing the ritual, about 120 had desired to be sponsored by him.

Gornuk, the son of Ragnok had been sent with the team of Goblins to conduct the inheritance tests. He was most likely to become the next king of the Goblins when Ragnok passed away though that time was still a long way off since Ragnok was expected to live at least 20 more years. He like his father had a proclivity for commerce and unlike Ragnok, he kept a cool head and wouldn't have ordered his armies to march out on a wizard before weighing the pros and cons of the situation.

Harry had heard his name mentioned but never met him in person before. He found him to be very amicable. He had come with a team of 10 goblins and 5 wizards who worked in different capacities with the bank. When they all met in the Great Hall, he announced in his booming voice, "As I see there are 5 major houses that have sponsored most students between them. We have divided the students into groups and the test will be conducted group wise. I request the heirs and Lords to please leave the Great Hall except for the one who is sponsoring the current group. When it is your turn, you will be called to attend. First we are going to conduct the ritual for those sponsored by the House of Macmillan."

Others left the Great Hall leaving Ernie in there. Harry knew that this group mostly consisted of those who parents were so-called muggleborn and were acquaintances of Lord Macmillan. Ernie as his heir was sitting in his stead. Most of them who had agreed to be sponsored by Harry were first generation muggle-born.

After about 20 minutes, the door opened and Gornuk called, "Harold Peverell".

Harry walked inside to take a seat beside Gornuk. The first was Dean who was a bit apprehensive but equally excited at the prospect. When he started writing with the blood quill, it took him quite a while to finish writing his name because he was wincing with each stroke of the quill. Clearly the goblins hadn't told them that they would be using blood quills.

Blood quills are Class-B non-tradable dark artefacts. Nobody except the Minister, the Chief Warlock and the goblins could use them. If anyone else needed to use them, they had to ask for special permission from the ministry. The former Senior Under-secretary to the former Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge had been found in possession of a handful of them. She had been sent to Azkaban being in possession of them because she had no such license.

As words started to appear on the piece of parchment, the goblin inspected it. After about a minute, he handed the parchment to Harry to see:

**Name:** Dean Thomas

Father's name: John Sayre

**Mother's name:** Anna Thomas nee Brewster

Heir to the house of Sayre.

The goblin had been observing Dean who looked curious. After about a minute, he said, "Mr Sayre, do you have any questions for me?"

Dean obviously had questions for him, "My name is Dean Thomas. Why does this parchment say that my name is Sayre?"

Dumbledore who was in the Great Hall sitting beside the goblin said jovially, "Indeed. I believe I can explain it to you. Tell me Mr. Thomas, has your mother told you anything about your father?"

Dean shook his head and Dumbledore continued, "As I know you live with your mother and step father, Mr. Thomas, he agreed to give you his name. Is that right?"

When Dean nodded, he continued, "So, it is possible that your mother met your father somewhere in the muggle world since your mother is obviously a muggle. He was the heir to House of Sayre, an important house in Britain and your father John Sayre had graduated from Hogwarts about 1975 or so. Your grand-parents and your father were actively opposing Voldemort and his forces during the war and for the fear of their lives they mostly lived in hiding. I believe your father was in muggle London to escape from the death eaters. Shortly before you were born, your father had to leave your mother because Lord Sayre, your grand-father had been killed. Your father had the obligation of his family on his shoulders and he knew that life could be hard for you and your mother in the magical world with the war going on. He left you both in relative safety and peace to go and fight the war and to fulfil his duties towards his family. I believe that he intended to return to your family as soon as the war was over. About a month after he returned home, he was killed in an ambush in Diagon Alley. He had never told anyone about your existence. The only one who is alive in your family is your grand-mother Lady Sayre who is living on the continent now."

Harry was surprised to find this piece of information, "So Professor what do we do now?"

It was Gornuk who answered, "If Lady Sayre is still alive then we can't give him the heir ring without her consent. Gringotts will send a letter to her and ask for her directions before we can proceed with the matter. Also it will be upon her to honour the commitments of House Peverell being their liege lord."

Harry waved him off, "That is of little concern to me, Gornuk. What is important is for Dean to have his inheritance. Even if he does not acknowledge me as his liege lord I won't bother with it."

The tests were being conducted by 10 goblins at once. Not every one of them merited mention as Dean did. It didn't take them too long. The Creevey's had no record of a magical family in Britain but Gornuk told them that he would check with the branches in other countries and reach out to them within a day or two.

There were a few more cases where there were family members already existing. The Goblins gave them information to help them re-connect with their lost relatives. After 2 hours, House Peverell had about 50 Vassals. House Black increased their Vassals to ten from the previous three. House Rosier had eight. House Potter had its number of Vassals increase to 40 from the previous one. As it turned out, Lord Charlus Potter had freed all of his vassals from their obligations towards his house after he had failed to get children in his 50th year. He knew he could not fulfil his obligations to them as their liege lord if there was no one left to keep the family name going. There had been no vassal when Harry assumed his title as the Lord of the family. The first vassal of the House had been Hermione Granger. Now there were 39 more. There were 10 who had some existing family and it was most likely that these new branches to those family trees would be treated as Cadet Lines.

Those who were reviving their family lines were given their head of house rings and a ledger containing details of their families. Also account managers were assigned on the ratio of one goblin to 5 houses to look after their accounts and to make investments on behalf of their clients.

**Romania**

The Vampires rushed into the cavern with their captive and their wounded while hollering for the guards, "Be on the lookout. Our enemy approaches."

When Voldemort reached the edge of their ward line, he scoffed at the wards. Ionut had told him that there were war wards protecting the place but these wards were damaged. At one point, it looked like someone had blasted their way in. It must have been recent because the Vampires had not yet made any repairs. Then again, it could have been a ruse to give him a false sense of security and lure him into a trap. If Voldemort had been able to read the signs correctly, he would have understood that the mystics had blasted their way through the wards just two days ago and that this was the last place he wanted to be. However, even if the wards had been intact, they would not have withstood an assault from Voldemort.

He took his time, casually walking through the gap the mystics had created. Although he had taken the time to cast charms to make himself invisible and mask the sounds he made, the members of the coven could still sense his blood. They rushed him while he stood surveying the cavern. With a gesture from his wand, he roared, "Fiendfyre!", and a wall of vermillion and crimson flame separated him from the coven's defenders. The few who were not able to check their charge in time were incinerated when they skidded into the flames. The demon forms in the flames licked their lips in satisfaction when the bodies were consumed. By sheer will alone, the dark lord kept the flames firmly in place or they surely would have consumed everything in the cavern.

The rest of the defenders shied away from the voracious flames. None of them could wield a wand, never mind extinguish Fiendfyre. Besides, they were under orders to only offer a token resistance before surrendering to Voldemort. Even if those were not their orders, there is no point in showing bravery when the battle cannot be won.

They would be very eager to hand him over to those monster hunters. Giving Voldemort to them was the best course of action for them. They were literally expendables. No one but themselves cared about their welfare.

As the guards retreated, Voldemort ended his spell knowing there was no one around him anymore. As soon as the Fiendfyre was extinguished, a delegation of vampires approached him with their hands raised. He levelled his wand at them.

The one in the lead said hastily, "We ask for your mercy. We will do you no harm. What do you want from us?"

He drawled coldly, "Your coven shall join my forces. And I want the wizard you have taken captive."

The leader of the Vampire delegation shook his head, "he is a traitor. We have first rights to his blood. We will consider giving anything else but not him."

Voldemort shrugged. If he had to give up that wizard in return for the vampires, it wasn't a bad bargain. He nodded, "Very well. You all know me. I have sent envoys to you in the past to have you join my forces but your response was negative. This time I again ask for you to join me."

The leader of the Vampires seemed to be mulling over what he said. After about a minute, he said, "Please accept the hospitality of our coven. We can sit and discuss this."

When Voldemort followed them into their cavern, it had been lit with torches this time. Torches or fire of any kind was extremely dangerous to vampires. They derived no benefit from them as this type of undead can see in total darkness. Voldemort took this as a sign that they were being very hospitable to him. The truth of the matter was that they were using the light of the torches to blind his night vision to conceal their numbers and the size of their cavern from him. He could see nothing outside of the circles of light each torch threw. At some indeterminate distance, the occasional gem or bit of precious metal would pick up the torch light and reflect it back. This coven was old and they had untold amounts of wealth hidden away. Some of their treasure was in the form of silver daggers and swords. These arms were intended for killing their mortal enemies, the werewolves.

In his mind, he knew the leeches would have to join him or die. But persuading them to get along with Greyback and his men would be a hard sell.

His escort was careful to guide him to the site where the wizard who had assisted him was hanging upside down from the ceiling of the cavern. There was a wound on the side of his head which was still dripping. His eyes were open in shock and glazed over in death. One of the vampires was carefully collecting every drop of blood as if it were treasure. Since they weren't allowed human blood, it was a treasure. They would use it to heal and revive the vampires that Voldemort had attacked earlier. After Voldemort passed by the scene, the vampire that was attending the body allowed a single drop of the blood to land upon the blood ruby in the gold ring he was wearing. The gem momentarily glowed red and faded again.

They led him into a chamber which was clearly used for meeting guests. They gave him a throne of honour. After he had made himself comfortable, their leader turned to him, "Dark Lord, our coven is powerful, wealthy and numerous. You, on the other hand, although you are seemingly quite powerful, also appear to be alone and penniless. Our services are worth much and our loyalty beyond price. What have you to offer that we should join you?"

Voldemort knew that they valued treasure, especially fine art. It was a way that they measured status. But the one thing a vampire always craved, needed and would sell his soulless hide to obtain was blood, humans above animals, magical blood above muggles and werewolves most of all. And, if the bargaining did not go his way, he could release Fiendfyre to erase any trace that this coven ever existed and try his luck with the next one.

In any event, he wasn't going to bargain away the whole farm with his first sentence, "I am not as penniless as I appear. I would think that your coven would support my cause in exchange for certain freedoms under my reign."

Their leader answered, "Your reign? If you are the ruler of a nation, we have not heard."

Voldemort's snake-like pupils flared red for an instant, but he maintained his composure, "Very well, you do not wish to trade for future considerations then. Of course, I do have access to a sizable treasury. I can offer your forces standard mercenary rates with sizable incentives for more dangerous missions."

The vampire affected a yawn (because their kind does not need to breathe) and said, "Silver, gold, gems, Goblin wrought silver? We have plenty of those; I don't suppose that you have any works of art? Old masters? Unique pieces? That might interest me."

Voldemort nodded, "We have several dozens of wizard oil paintings, carvings and statues. I'm not much of an art connoisseur, so I cannot tout their merits to you. But yes, we have such things. I'm sure that we could come to some kind of agreement."

The vampire pretended to consider, "Hmm. Unknown works of art. I can't really commit my people for a complete unknown. I mean, I can take your offer back to my people, but I doubt that they will accept."

Voldemort finally decided to throw all of his chips into the pot, "Of course, we will be fighting wizards and werewolves. Who's to say how some of those bodies went missing or turned up without any blood in them?"

The vampire fixed Voldemort with his stare. The wizard could feel the vampire trying to enter his mind, for control or to see if he was lying, the dark wizard did not care. He slammed down his Occlumency shields and tore his way into the vampires mind to compel him to take his offer. While he was in there, he discovered the vampire's plan to sell him out to the monster hunters. He prodded but somehow he didn't think that any wizard could defeat him. His encounter with Guruji all those years ago blocked from his mind, he still had no idea what danger this represented to him.

His work done on the vampire, the Imperious curse would not have been much more effective, he pulled back out of the vampire's mind and asked, "How does my offer sound to you?"

The vampire nodded, "We could not ask for more. I will take your offer to my people. You will have your answer in the morning. In the meantime, please accept the hospitality of our coven."

He gave Voldemort over to the care of his second in command to take the wizard to the guest quarters and exited the room.

**Hogsmeade**

Viktor Krum was reading a letter from Madame Alexanderov. She had written to inform him that she had heard reports of Voldemort being on tour to recruit more wizards and other magical beings, which he already knew from the Order of the Phoenix. She also informed him that 60 of her Aurors had committed themselves to her cause. Many more were actively considering it. She wanted General Longbottom to commit to their aid should they need it in the future. She was also having them train for an additional two hours a day, really putting them through the ringer. She was telling them to start using only lethal spells for practice.

He had already sent a letter to Harry to inform him about it. Other than that, his practice with Puddlemere was coming along beautifully. The team was a well oiled machine and they had no problem in moulding themselves to his strategy. Their captain, Pete Collins was always very respectful towards him and heard his input while deciding any strategy. Their reserve seeker who was just out of school always hovered around Viktor asking him for tips to improve his game or show him something that would be useful in the long run. Viktor knew that he was much more experienced than most of these players. None of them had been on the national team as of yet.

The manager was always trying to include him into everything that the club did. As a result of him joining Puddlemere, the club's popularity had shot through the roof. On the other hand, this had given the idea to other clubs to go and seek international players to have them join their clubs. After all Puddlemere United wasn't the only one who could afford to do so. The downside was that the Department of Magical Games and Sports was considering some changes to regulate this practice and to limit the number of international players that a club can hire.

He was yet to meet with Harry again for the simple reason that there had been no Hogsmeade weekend since the new term started. He was planning to connect with them who had become his friends during the year.

**The Chamber of Secrets**

When Harry met Vikram in the Chamber of Secrets, he immediately asked the mystic, "Professor what happened with Petrov and Voldemort?"

Vikram shook his head, "I don't know for sure. As far as I can guess, they still haven't come across him though it won't be too long. Now tell me, do you know how to use the power of the Vassals?"

Harry of course had no idea how to do it and shook his head, "No Professor. I don't know."

Vikram grinned, "Then let me teach it to you."

Harry nodded and he continued, "You see the way you connect with your family magic and summon its spirit. It's the same way you have to say an incantation while really meaning for it to work while controlling your family magic through the rings that you wear. The rings are embodiment of the family magic which lies at your call. While it is onerous work but I don't think that it will be hard for you, not after you finished the Naga ritual."

Harry nodded, "Let me try then."

When he did it for the first time, he felt so much power coursing through his veins that he could not maintain his control on it. As a result, it ebbed out of him quickly.

Then Vikram told him to not let any other thought or emotion come into his mind when he is doing it. Harry kept working on it for an hour. Each time, he got a bit more of a grasp on it. At the end of one hour, Vikram told him to keep practicing it for a few days before he would help him in using the surge of power which he felt within.

**The serpent slithered away**

When Petrov received the message from the Vampires, his countenance lit up. He stood from his chair and performed a summon spell silently. As his cloak and mask floated towards him, he called Markesh in.

When Markesh came, he was already putting on his cloak. Without even turning to Markesh, he said, "Get the men ready. Voldemort has arrived. The leeches have just sent me a message."

About 10 minutes later, they had emptied the headquarters of every mystic in Romania. Before they left, Petrov addressed them, "I know I am not good at words like Guruji so I will be straight and to the point. We are going to hunt down and capture Voldemort. It is possible that some of us may not come back. Unleash everything that you have got on him. If you can capture him then it will be better. That way, we can straightaway take him to England and hand over to the lad. Harry's fulfilling his destiny will be as easy as taking a walk in the garden then. Dharm aur Maan."

There was resounding roar of 'Dharm aur Maan' from the mystics as one and they started disapparating one after another. They were going to battle.

Voldemort was sleeping when he heard a noise resounding in his surroundings. He fancied that it was a conch shell and the sound reverberated around the cavern echoing in the vast gloominess of it. Raising himself up, he got out of the chamber to find the Vampires were running around, getting ready for battle.

He caught hold of their leader and growled, "What is the matter?"

He replied frantically, "We are being attacked. There is an army at the gate of the cavern and we can't win over them."

Voldemort thought it might be the moment to show the Vampires why allying with him would be the best choice for them, "How many of them are there?"

The Vampire replied, "There's about 30 of them out there."

Voldemort put his wand to his throat and said in his highly magnified voice, "Calm down everyone. I am going to kill these enemies of yours and show you why allying with me is the best choice for you."

The leader of the Vampires was stunned at his stupidity. What a presumptuous idiot to think that he alone could take on thirty armed wizards who were specifically after him. Voldemort had not even asked if the foes of the Vampires were wizards, vampires or werewolves. But he still thought that he could deal with them singlehandedly. He shrugged. If Voldemort wanted to arrange his own funeral then who was he to object?

Voldemort walked out of the cavern to find thirty wizards armed with wands pointed at the mouth of the cavern. They were all tall, heavily built and dressed in black cloaks and wore leather masks! Masks the same as the one that Harold Peverell wore when he fought Voldemort in the Ministry Atrium. He realised he had been fooled by the Vampires and walked into a trap again! On the top of that the brat had been one wizard but here were thirty of them. He knew his chances to win against them were bleak at best. The best he could do was to escape. He called out to the leader of the Vampires standing at a distance behind him and commanded him, "help me and I will reward you beyond your wildest dreams."

The leader of the wizards barked a harsh laugh, "Ha! You think these leeches will help you? No Tom, they won't interfere unless they want a painful demise."

It became clear to Voldemort instantly that the Vampires really weren't going to help him. He could only trust his skills. He suddenly whipped up his wand and roared, "Avada Kedavra".

One of the mystics casually flicked his wand and sent a curse in front of his killing curse. With a small explosion, both of the curses dissipated. However before Tom could cast again, Petrov levelled his wand at him and roared, "Martandam!"

To Voldemort's horror, the circle of fire which had charred him the last time was rushing at him. He whipped up his wand and conjured a humungous wave of water which doused the circle of fire. In the meanwhile another of the mystics had levelled his wand at him and yelled 'Taditam'. The lightning bolt erupted from his wand and rushed at Voldemort who was forced to raise a mage shield.

As the mage shield appeared in his hand, Petrov smirked inwardly and roared a command to his men which Voldemort did not understand. The next moment he saw at least 20 wands raised at him. At that moment, realisation dawned on him; these people intended to put him down like a rabid dog. Before he could do anything, rainfall started. Lightning bolts started peppering his mage shield one after another. Each strike made a gong like sound and the spell fizzled out. The mage shield protected him from everything except a Killing Curse but it was taxing his magical strength. He knew he did not have much time before his shield would give way.

The mystics in the meanwhile kept pounding on his shield with the bolts unrelentlessly. Finally after about 5 minutes, Voldemort slightly stumbled. Petrov recognised he was about to fall in a few more minutes and roared something again.

Half of the mystics disappararted to apparate behind him and started casting incarcerous at him. Voldemort tried to move out of the way of the incarcerous but the ropes kept following him. He was greatly puzzled by this. To avoid capture however, there was only one thing that he could do. He dropped the mage shield and waved his wand raising a wall between him and those firing spells at him. Next he slashed his wand in a big arc to slash the incarcerous jinxes flying at him. At that moment, the wall collapsed and a hex hit him on his off-hand blasting it away. He doubled over in pain but knew he had to do something.

In the meanwhile Petrov was ordering his men to fire bone breakers because they could not destroy this construct which he was using as a body. If he escaped, he could use one of those horcruxes to return to a body again and they couldn't afford that.

Voldemort knew there was nothing that he could do to attack them. He could not cast Fiendfyre when he barely had enough magic to remain standing and they could neutralise his killing curses with ease. He doubled over in pain suddenly as a wave of bone breakers hit him in the chest. The resounding crack made him realise that bones all over his body had been broken. He slumped to the ground, no better than a slithering snake.

Petrov smirked in satisfaction and raised his wand to cast Incarcerous when suddenly black mist descended about them. He knew it was not any of his men who cast it because he could feel another magical signature. It belonged to someone malevolent and extremely hostile. He could not fire any lethal spell either because it could have hit one of his men. There was only one spell which could help against it. He raised his wand and roared, "Expecto patronum."

A horse burst out of his wand and raised its beautiful head neighing. Other patroni joined the horse and suddenly the mist was lifted but Voldemort was not there. Someone had taken him away just before they were about to capture him.

Telling the Vampires to keep a lookout for Voldemort and putting some spies around, Petrov and his men returned. He remembered some snippet of a conversation he once had with Harsh. He had to talk to his Guruji to confirm his suspicions.

* * *

**A/N- thank you everyone for the lovely reviews which I received for the last chapter.**

**Now a quick question- Who snatched Tom away from their jaws?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Africa**

Harsh was in the base camp that the mystics had set up in the deep dense jungle. The campaign had been going on for almost six months now. Slowly but surely, they were taking the dark wizards in the area down. The Chayas had informed him that the dark wizards were uniting against this common foe which had come to torment them. He had sent Orders to Avalon to send all the mystics to Africa. For the moment, their need was greater. They only needed to keep a handful of them there to guard Harry. Also since Pundariksh was posted at Hogwarts, there was nothing for him to worry about.

One of the mystics rushed in with a letter and presented it to him. It was marked with the seal of Petrov. Since Petrov didn't write letters unless it was urgent, it was clear that something had happened which required his intervention. He opened the letter and started reading it:

_"Guruji Pranam,_

_Recently I received information that the abomination on the name of mother magic, Tom Marvolo Riddle, was on a mission to recruit more to his cause, that he was arriving in Romania to recruit the Vampires._

_I paid a visit to the Vampires to make them agree to my demands that they keep him occupied and send me a message so that I could take him on. Just a few hours ago, I attacked him with 29 mystics at my back. Our objective was not to kill him or destroy the magical construct he uses for a body. To that end, we used bone breakers to disable him._

_My intention was to take him captive and deliver him to the lad in Avalon so that he could fulfil his destiny at his leisure. We were about to capture him when someone stole him out from under our noses. I also felt a hostile magical signature which reminded me of a conversation I had with you once. _

_I am writing this letter to you in hopes that you will contact me at the earliest opportunity._

_Regards_

_Petrov"_

Harsh frowned as he finished reading the letter. For someone to be able to steal a man out from under the noses of his mystics was no ordinary feat. And the thing about a hostile magical signature worried him. He decided to contact Petrov as soon as he could.

He raised his voice, "Martand". Martand entered the tent about a minute later, "yes Guruji."

"Martand, I am going to run an errand. It may take some time before I will return. In my absence, take care of the others. Keep your eyes open. Our enemies are getting desperate."

As Martand bowed to him, he stood up and disappeared.

**Romania**

Petrov had not missed any of his men until they returned to headquarters. When he arrived there, he realised that two of his numbers were missing. He immediately sent a party to look for them. They returned about an hour later with two dead bodies. They had been killed by someone from the back with a piercing hex. It was a worrying thought for him. True that these men were not seasoned veterans but they were experienced enough to avoid being killed from the back.

They put their bodies in stasis since it was their custom to cremate them at the end of three days. For the next three days, they will silently mourn their fallen comrades and cherish their lives. At the end of three days, they would send them back to mother magic.

He had sent a letter to Harsh because there was no other way to contact him. His whereabouts were unknown. That had been two days ago and he was still waiting for Harsh to respond.

He heard the floo roar and there was Harsh's head sitting in the flames. Petrov bowed low to him, sitting on his knees, "Guruji, accept my obeisance."

Harsh smiled warmly, "May you never falter against your enemies, vatsa. What happened in the duel with Voldemort?"

Petrov began telling him everything that Voldemort had done since he arrived in Romania including the massacre in the inn. Harsh kept listening to him with an impassive face and at last he asked him, "Did we lose someone?"

Petrov nodded, "We lost two of our men, Guruji. It looks like they were taken down with puncture curses from behind."

Harsh nodded, "Describe the mist and the malevolent feeling for me."

Petrov too well remembered what it felt like, "It was like someone was pricking us with needles and the presence felt like it was someone ancient who had honed the ways of magic after years of artful study. The mist was like our normal black mist but it felt more sinister and a single patronus could not have pierced it."

Harsh nodded, "What conversation were you alluding to?"

"Guruji, I remember you telling me about a dark wizard who is as accomplished as you are but rather well versed in the more sinister aspects of magic, that he could do almost everything that you could but with an evil twist."

Harsh nodded, "I am afraid that you were indeed correct in your assumptions. I believe it was the same wizard who took him away. Other than him there is no one who could get the jump on all of you. Also I am angry at you."

Petrov folded his hands in respectful gesture, "How did I offend you, Guruji?"

"You know that Voldemort's death is written at the hands of Harold Peverell. In fact you were there when Varah Mihir came to tell us about it yet you tried to tamper with fates? That was not wise."

"Guruji, I was only trying to prevent the bloodshed and carnage that will follow."

"I understand your intentions Petrov but that was not for you to do. You could have duelled Voldemort but to capture him was not for you. That is the reason that he slipped between your fingers."

"What do we do now, Guruji? Do you think Voldemort will return here?"

Harsh shook his head, "No, he won't return there. Not today not ever. He won't let Voldemort face you again."

"Guruji, why haven't you killed him already?"

Harsh actually chuckled, "Petrov he has had a long life. He has taught too many disciples in his long life. If we were to get into direct conflict with him, it would bring an end to the world. In fact Varah Mihir had told me that he would let me know when the opportune moment came to take him down without too many losses on our side. Also I think it is time that we finish Ionut Anastese. His time is done."

Petrov nodded. It would be easy enough to finish Ionut Anastese. He would hardly need to go to any great lengths for it. Just a swap of tumblers in the bar where he spends an hour every evening and it will be done. Ionut won't need more than a minute to keel over.

At the same time, Harsh knew it was time to do what the letter wanted him to. The letter which he had received from Varah Mihir a few months ago was coming to fruition now.

**Hogwarts**

Harry was sitting with Ron, Neville, Ernie and Justin pondering over a problem. It was not a life or death situation per se but it required the boys to sit together and think about it. That was the reason that no girl was there with them. The topic was Valentine's Day which was just a week away. None of them had a clue about what to do.

Harry spoke up first, "The girls are expecting us to do something with them next weekend. Do any of you blokes have an idea?"

Ernie said, "Sorry, mate. Like you, I'm clueless. I don't know what to do either. Lilith expects me to try and surprise her."

Ron chimed in, "I'm sure she'd be surprised if you did absolutely nothing."

The others chuckled, then Ernie said, "If I did that, she'd have my head on a platter."

Neville joked, "Why don't you propose to her, mate? You know just pop the big question and give her a promise ring to show your sincerity towards your commitment?"

Harry quipped, "That may be all well and fine for you lot, but it won't work for me."

Justin asked him curiously, "Why's that, Harry?"

Neville swatted him on the head, "because Wonder boy here has to marry her the day he turns 18. That's the only way that their relationship could go."

Justin chuckled, "Whipped, Harry?"

It was Neville who answered, "Aren't you whipped too? You can't get enough of Isobel, as I have seen."

The quip made Justin go red in the face and the others laughed uproariously.

Harry turned to Ron, "What do you plan to do?"

Ron said evasively, "I have a cunning plan."

Harry wanted to make this Valentine's Day special for Susan. He thought he had the perfect plan in mind. It would require a lot of preparation and far more courage than he could muster. He intended to express his love for her in the grandest manner in front of the entire school. He would require some help from the twins.

The twins had also finished developing the contraption that he wanted from them. Remus had got it patented under their names.

Unknown to his friends, he left the castle last night to meet with Frank and Sirius. It was not a meeting conducted at the Ministry but at Green Hues. In attendance were Alice Longbottom, Amelia Bones, Alastor Moody, Rufus Scrimgeour and Albus Dumbledore.

After extending due courtesies to him, Frank asked, "What did you want to talk about Harry? I must confess that I am curious."

Harry produced the contraption from his pocket which was empty instead of containing the poison it was designed to deliver. He put it on the table before them and started speaking slowly, "This is a little contraption that we have come up with. Right now it is empty. In the final battle this will contain a liquid which is a deadly poison when vaporized and inhaled. There is a mechanism in this contraption which superheats the liquid within 5 seconds then it explodes into a cloud of deadly vapour. Once activated, it must be used since it cannot be deactivated. You can just hurl it at a group of death eaters. Anyone who is within 5 meters of it will drop dead the next time they take a breath. If you forget to activate it before throwing it, it will shatter on impact, making it useless. If someone were to cut themselves on the pieces before the potion inside becomes inert, it would be quite deadly."

Frank asked him cautiously, "Why are you giving it to us?"

Harry said earnestly, "Because I won't have enough time to use these in the final battle. Other than Aurors, the alternative is that I give these to the students. You can guess how that would go over."

Every one visibly shuddered with the mental image of a student operating one of these. If it went haywire or they misjudged then there would be a catastrophe. The same could happen to the Aurors and they were not in the mood to take any chances.

Sirius asked him, "Pup, do you have any empty shells of this contraption which we can fill with water and give them to Aurors to practice?"

Harry shook his head, "Actually no. I just have a few samples with me. This contraption was designed by Messrs. Fred and George Weasley and Tracy Davis and they hold the patent to it. I know for a fact that they want to make a joke item out of this product but for the time being I was able to convince them otherwise. You can place orders to them for as many of these shells as you want. As for the poison, it is solely under my ownership. You can always place your orders for that to me. I ask that you keep the existence of these weapons a closely guarded secret. Be careful which Aurors you issue them to."

Amelia agreed, "I second you. The special ops group should have access to these. Other than them, maybe a handful of selected Aurors but no one else."

Alice had a different question, "If one of our own is caught up between them, how they would be able to save themselves?"

Harry answered quickly, "That's part of the training that anyone issued with one of these devices needs to know. The poison has to be inhaled or get into the blood through a cut. It can't go through skin. A simple bubble head charm will protect one of our own if things go sideways with one of them."

Frank asked, "Can you demonstrate how it works, Harry?"

Harry answered, "Alright. First, you open it by tapping with your wand on the weasel." He tapped the side of the device where a weasel was engraved and the device popped open. "Wearing protective gloves, "He pulled on dragon hide gloves, "You pour the phial of poison inside. The stuff shouldn't harm you, but if you have a cut and the poison gets into it, there won't be any time to get an antidote. This is just water for demonstration purposes." He emptied the phial into the device. "It closes again by flipping the lid and it seals itself." When he gently pushed the hinged lid upward, it flipped into place with a soft click. "To activate it, you have to pry up this pull tab, then twist and pull firmly until the pin comes out. Once you've done that, it will explode five seconds later. I'm not going to do that in here because it will make a bit of a mess when it goes off."

Frank suggested, "Let's go out to the grounds of the manor."

When everyone was assembled out in front of the manor house, Harry continued, "The ring is clipped firmly in place and it takes some effort to pop it out." He popped the ring free with a click. "Once the ring is free, give it a quarter twist and pull the pin free." Putting action to his words, he twisted the ring and pulled. "Five, four…" He threw the device. It sailed through the air and exploded into a puff of steam three seconds later.

Moody finally had his say, "lad if you have a few more of these shells and a few samples of the poison, I would like to get my hands on it. I always test the merchandise before I buy it. Don't you agree?"

Harry nodded, "Very well, Master Auror Moody, you shall be our beta tester." Harry said as he produced the empty shells and carefully sealed phials of poison from his robes. Handing them over to the grizzled veteran, he said, "If you have any suggestions for improvement, let me know. And I remind you that we've all agreed that you don't show these to just anybody."

They had all agreed to only let Aurors handle these. Such things which were inherently risky could not be given to students. It was for the warriors to do. When Harry left the meeting, he knew the twins were about to get a return on their investment into developing and manufacturing the contraption. On the side, he would get orders for the poison which would bring in a decent amount of gold for his vaults.

**London **

The muggle born wizards had been on the lookout for the last several days to find out what the death eaters were up to or if there were any attacks. One of these, Mr. Reich who was of German descent, had been doing a round of the suburbs as part of their co-ordinated efforts. He came upon a place where he could feel magic in the air.

He knew most of the muggle-born and none that he knew of lived in this area. That made it suspicious. He was sensitive to magic but had never learnt runes or warding so there was no way he could determine what the nature of the wards were that he could feel about him.

Disillusioning himself, he walked in a direction where he could feel that the pull was the strongest. He had walked about 500 meters when he came upon a house where a group of wizards were casting spells apparently in the air while one was bent at the edge of the property, trying to dig something up. He knew enough to understand that they were trying to find the wardstone.

They had been so busy that they didn't even notice him coming in or going out. He had to walk a part of the way though because the presence he had felt was anti-apparition wards. When he was outside the wards, he disapparated to reappear outside his house. He entered the house at a run, throwing almost a handful of floo powder into the fireplace, he shouted, "Auror Office, Ministry of Magic."

As his head appeared in the fireplace in the Auror's office, a wizard with a scar on the side of his face and an upturned nose greeted him, "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. How may I help you?"

He quickly relayed everything that he had seen along with the location which the dispatcher jotted down on the piece of parchment with his name and address. As Reich pulled his head back out of the fireplace, the dispatcher turned to Moody who was present in that chamber for the time being, "Master Auror, a call just came in. 5 suspects trying to break into a house."

Moody almost jumped down from his seat and snatched the offered piece of parchment. Shoving it into the pocket of his robe, Moody strode out while telling the dispatcher, "Don't bother sending anyone else. I will handle that scum by myself. If you don't hear from me in ten minutes, feel free to call the Minister or the special ops team."

As he ran towards the apparition point, he patted the pocket of his robe where he kept the bomb he had loaded after the demonstration. The lad had brought something really ingenious. This would help the Aurors deal with the death eaters swiftly.

Disapparating from the ministry, he appeared at the edge of the wards. Pulling his shrunken broom out of his pocket, he enlarged it. As his broom was returning to its full size, he had already disillusioned himself. Mounting his broom he took off instantly. It hardly took him two minutes to reach the place. He saw that they had found the ward stone and were on to destroying it. He pulled out the device, flipped out the ring, twisted and pulled the pin and threw it towards them while shooting upwards on his broom. After reaching a safe height, he peered down to find that four of the scum were on the ground and made no apparent movement but the last one was still on his knees and inspecting his companions. Getting into a sharp nose dive, he was about 10 feet from the death eater when a reckless idea occurred to him. It was a first for him in many years but he wanted to try it. Abandoning his broom, he jumped down in front of the last standing death eater.

When the man realized that the one standing in front of him was Mad-Eye himself, he dropped his wand. With his hands behind his head he grovelled on the ground, "Mercy! Mercy! Please don't kill me."

Alastor stunned him and bound him before he inspected the other death eaters. They were all quite dead. There was no sign of horror or struggle in their faces. They looked like they could have passed away in their sleep. He decided to send the bodies to the Unspeakables to research more about this. The sight felt somewhat disturbing to him.

After ensuring that there were no more death eaters around, he walked up to the house they had been trying to enter and rapped on the door. It was opened a minute later by a man who was in his 50s.

The man asked in his deep baritone voice, "Yes how can I help you?"

Moody grunted, "I am from Law Enforcement..."

The man chuckled, "You don't need to pretend Mr. Moody. I know you are the head of the Aurors. I am a wizard and half-blood by descent. My name is Cyril Montgomery. The death eaters had been hounding me for days, trying to get me to join them and I refused every time. I had felt my wards flare about 10 minutes ago. I was trying to find a way to escape but was unable to. I am thankful that you are here."

Moody nodded, "You may have to come to the ministry later to give a statement about the threats you have been receiving. For the moment, I would advise you to keep your ward stone in the house so that it becomes unplottable."

By then the ministry backup had arrived being led by Gawain Robards. Rufus Scrimgeour who was a part of the entourage growled at him, "You're an idiot, Alastor. Who told you to risk your life, going out by yourself?"

Moody barked at him, "Is that how you talk to your seniors?"

Before it could escalate, Robards stepped in, "The minister wants to see you, Alastor. You go on to the ministry. We will join you after we've cleaned up here."

Moody barked orders that the bodies were to be taken to the Unspeakables for study. They were amazed that Moody had taken out five of them single-handedly and so quickly. Alastor was mentally smirking in satisfaction that the contraption had worked. It would be of immense help to them. Only they would need to remember to cast the bubble head charm beforehand.

**Ministry of Magic**

When Moody walked into Frank's office, Frank was in quite a state. He was red in the face, his eyes glaring out from under a furrowed brow. If looks could kill, Moody would have been a pile of smouldering ash. Glaring at Alastor, he laid into him, "What do you mean going off half-cocked into an unknown situation by yourself like that? You could have been imperioused! You could have been captured and tortured! You could have been killed! And that with a piece of classified equipment on your person! Stupid, impulsive Rookie mistake! And that from my head of Aurors! What, in the name of Merlin's baggy y-fronts were you thinking? What kind of example were you setting for your men? What do you have to say for yourself?"

Like the iconic sergeant major that he was at heart, Alastor took the tongue lashing standing at attention without twitching a muscle, his gaze fixed firmly on a point in space six inches above Frank's left shoulder. When Frank was done, he reported, "Mr. Reich, a muggle-born wizard, called the Auror office through the floo. He reported a death eater attack in progress being perpetrated by five enemy troops. There was no one else about to respond to the attack so I apparated to the site and dealt with the situation. I thought it best not to bring any backup because I intended to test one of the new devices the lad provided to me this morning. If it malfunctioned, I didn't want any of our lads to be injured. I am happy to report that the device functioned as promised. It inflicted four enemy casualties. The bodies have been sent to the unmentionables for examination. The lone survivor was apprehended and is awaiting my attention in the interrogation chambers."

Frank was still talking too loudly for someone who was standing right in front of him, "I don't care about all that. You went against procedure, exposing yourself to unnecessary risk. If you were anyone else, you'd be taking a week off without pay for insubordination. But I know how desperately we need you. I am letting you off this time. Consider this your first, last and only warning. Pull anything like that again and I will have you clapped in irons and thrown into the dungeons of the Longbottom Castle. Is that understood?"

Moody realised that to have angered Frank that much, his act must have been too rash and negligent. Frank was a guy who rarely got angry so there was something to it. Knowing what was best for him he clicked his heels together and did a formal salute, "Yes Sir". With that he walked out of Frank's office.

That night, a barn-owl brought a letter with the insignia of the Ministry of Magic to Mr. Reich. It read:

_"Dear Mr. Reich_

_I have received news of you risking your life for the safety of your fellow magical folk and the muggles by informing the ministry about a death-eater attack this evening. The ministry as a whole and me, in my individual capacity feel indebted to you for the selfless service for the ministry and your fellow brethren._

_I applaud your spirit, your bravery and your resoluteness in this entire affair._

_Yours,_

_Frank Jeremy Longbottom_

_General of the forces of Wizarding Britain."_

The letter would no doubt prompt him to do more for his fellow wizards and may be others would be encouraged to follow suit.

**Hogwarts**

**"5 Death Eaters Killed**

_As per a press release issued by the ministry, 5 death eaters were killed in the suburbs of London by Master Auror Alastor Moody single-handedly. According to the ministry, a muggle-born wizard (Identity not disclosed for security reasons) had notified the ministry about a death eater attack in progress. The ministry acted promptly on the information. There were no casualties on the side of the Aurors._

_General Longbottom had the following to say on this matter: 'The ministry applauds the responsible citizen who reached out to us and informed us about the raid. The fact that citizens are doing Harold Peverell's bidding and helping us in this war gladdens our hearts.'…"_

_This news certainly did brighten the students' hopes. Harry himself was satisfied with the turn of events. Maybe, the losses won't be so high now._

**The return of Sayre**

About three days after the inheritance rituals were done Harry and Dean were summoned to the Headmaster's office in the evening. Harry knew there could be a lot of reasons for calling him but he was puzzled as to why Dumbledore would summon Dean Thomas.

When they entered the office, they found that Dumbledore was not alone but there was a witch in the room with him. She looked old with a wrinkled face, well-set silver hair and brown eyes like Dean's. She carried herself with a deportment which cried pureblood from afar. Harry was sure that he had never met this lady before.

Dumbledore offered them chairs. When they were comfortably seated, he began speaking, "Harry and Dean, allow me to introduce you to Lady Sayre. She lives in France these days. Lady Sayre, I presume that you already know Harry. This other fine, young man is your grandson, Dean."

Lady Sayre was looking at Dean hungrily as if she wanted to take in everything about his appearance at once. She spoke after a few minutes, "I can see John in your face, my child. I am Valetta Sayre, your grand-mother. John never got the opportunity to tell me about you. If I had known, I would have tried to visit sooner."

Dean was dumbfounded. He didn't know what to say. What could one say when someone they had never known came up to them and told them that they were related. His step-father Mr. Thomas was a good man who loved him like a son and Dean was happy with him. But, as he had found out, the inheritance test never lies so this lady was speaking the truth and by his duties as he had found from others, he could not deny to her.

Dumbledore understood the awkwardness of the moment and tried to relieve the tension by speaking, "Lady Sayre, did you have something to say to Harry?"

She replied, "yes, I did.". She turned to Harry, "Lord Peverell, I knew your family when I lived here. We were not intimately familiar but they considered us good friends. Since there is no one alive in my family anymore and the House of Sayre stands on its last leg, I believe that my house will need the protection of another house for the time being until Dean is able to establish it again. Would you honour us by becoming our Liege Lord?"

Shortly thereafter, Dumbledore and Harry left Dean and Lady Sayre in peace for an hour or so. She was not there for an extended stay but had returned when she received the letter from the Goblins. She had already hired cleaning services to clean her manor and for other issues. She was also planning to give him the heir ring and asked him to visit her in France when school let out. She even went as far as to tell him to invite his mother and step-father too along with his sisters. She also promised that she would return to Wizarding Britain when Voldemort was dead finally.

**Greece**

Voldemort came to consciousness and opened his eyes to find himself somewhere underground. It was a dark and dingy room where the only source of light was a torch on the opposite side of the room. From what he could guess, the room was cavernous and sparsely furnished.

He himself was lying on the hard ground with only a bed of straw. His body felt like it was on fire. It was as if someone had knitted his bones together with a spell instead of using a potion on him. Using the potion would have been the best thing since it could have done the work easily and painlessly. He tried to raise his head to look around the room. A stab of pain shot through his spine like a thunderbolt, convincing him to fall back and lay still.

He realised why his bones were knitted. The spells which had hit him were not simple bone breakers but something more sinister. Those scums had actually powdered his bones and did not vanish them. Skele-gro wouldn't have been able to re-grow them in place of the powdered bones which would have to be flushed through his system. If all the powdered bones were flushed at once, it would have destroyed this magical construct. If they decided to vanish bones from one part and regrow it with skele-gro then the potion would have worked on the whole body. The construct would have burst apart with the new bones trying to take the place of the powdered ones. Also there was a chance that the potion would not be able to regrow everything at once and they would have to take many doses and a longer time to recuperate. Then there was the hand that had been blasted away. It was regrown but it didn't look like the work of Skele Gro either. The potion could grow bones but whoever had worked on him had regrown the bones, gave him flesh and blood and the arm felt new. Perhaps they had again performed the ritual to revitalise him which he had done a few days ago.

That bit of mystery solved, he focused on the other problem. He had no idea how he escaped them. As far as he could remember, he had been on the verge of unconsciousness and fell over when they powdered his bones. The last thing that he remembered was the dark mist descending upon his foes. He was sure that he had not summoned that mist. Whoever had summoned it had done that to take him away and apparently they wanted to save Voldemort because they had every opportunity to kill him but they hadn't.

"Awake at last?", Someone growled, "I see you are still the idiot that you always have been, Voldemort.". He said the dark lord's name with a note of dripping sarcasm.

Tom actually recognised the harsh growl. He had heard it for years when he was an apprentice. This someone had no fondness for anyone. They were all just tools to him. He only used them for his purposes and didn't care one bit about them. Voldemort had seen him kill his apprentices because they failed to satisfy him with their deeds. This one was a master but a harsh one. He considered all of them vermin and treated them as such. He had even scoffed when Voldemort told him that he was the last of the illustrious line of Slytherin.

When there was no replying coming, the growl came again, "Quit loafing, you dimwit. I am not your varlet to wait upon you hand and foot."

Voldemort gritted his teeth and sat up. The pain shot through his spine again and he had to grit his teeth to prevent himself from crying out in pain. Mustering his strength he stood up and immediately fell over again!

The owner of that voice had no sympathy for one who has been recuperating from mortal injury and barked, "Stop dirtying my floor. Get up and come here or I will come to set you straight."

Pushing his magic out a little, Voldemort stood up and taking small steps, he walked in the direction where he believed the inner chamber was. What seemed like hours to him but was only about a minute with lots of wincing and internally cursing, he reached the gate of the inner chamber. It was much as he remembered it from the last time he was there. It was a room which was hardly more than 15 feet square. There was no bed in it but a straw mattress on the floor. A wardrobe stood at the side which contained a few cloaks and robes along with a pair of boots.

Sitting cross-legged on the mattress was Master Abbadon. He was still the same as ever. His face was heavily wrinkled, his frame bolt-upright, tall and lanky, his jet black eyes gleaming with hate and a sneer at the corner of his lips.

As he saw Voldemort, he growled, "Took you long enough, boy! Sit down."

When he realised that Abbadon had saved him, he immediately knew why he was not given any pain potion. Abbadon was a miserable individual who wanted to cause everyone to feel pain. He couldn't expect any empathy or relief from him.

When he saw that Voldemort had not yet obeyed his order, he shot a wandless bludgeoning hex at him, knocking him on his butt. Voldemort wanted to retaliate but he knew better than to try. Besides, he realized that his wand was not on him. Perhaps Abbadon had already taken it away.

The ancient necromantic master was hissing at him, "Cat got your tongue, Voldemort? Or do you want me to persuade you to talk?"

Voldemort immediately prostrated himself before his master, "Master I seek your help in my war."

"I am sufficiently informed on the matter. Tell me what ails you."

Voldemort started telling in detail about the prophecy which Sybill Trelawney had made, his efforts to eliminate his nemesis before he could become a threat, losing his body and being saved due to Horcruxes, making attempts to return to a body and finally getting a body then getting thoroughly defeated by Harold Peverell in the ministry atrium. When he was done telling that, Abbadon motioned him to continue speaking and he told about his expedition to recruit more wizards to his army and what had happened with the Vampires.

When he was done speaking, Abbadon growled, "I have never seen a bigger idiot than you in my entire life, Voldemort. You are so blinded by your arrogance and stupidity that you decided to finish your nemesis while he was a child without even knowing what the full prophecy might say? You forgot that there is so much magic in the world that has been forgotten? Did you presume that you can emerge victorious over anyone? You have spilt so much magical blood which could have served you otherwise with some persuasion. I know you are a fool but you are absolutely stupid beyond redemption."

Voldemort lowered his gaze, "Show me the way, Master. I beseech you."

Abbadon growled, "Your ways won't work on me, boy. Wizards better than you have failed at this. Your first folly was to create Horcruxes. If you created one maybe two at the very most, I could have understood that but you created so many that it divided your power and made your soul unstable. Now the only way you can unify your soul and regain your power is true remorse which will most likely kill you. Your only chance is to learn what I can teach you to win over your opponent. There is only a very slim chance that you can win against him so I want you to do what I ask of you. Spend two weeks here at my command and I will teach you enough."

Voldemort lowered his head, "What is my first command, master?"

Abbadon pointed towards a pitcher in the corner, "Go and fill that pitcher from the river. I am thirsty. Then you will make arrangements for tonight supper."

This was the downside of working with Abbadon. He always used his apprentices for his menial work and there was no way that Voldemort could refuse. Only he could teach him enough so that he would be able to kill Harold Peverell for good.

**Sir Nick**

Harry searched for Sir Nick for quite a long time before he came upon him in the trophy room talking to the Bloody Baron. Why Nick would be talking to the Bloody Baron was anybody's guess but perhaps ghosts weren't hindered by house divisions as the students were. The Baron even glared at him once or twice while Harry respectfully waited for Nick to finish his conversation.

After they talked for about an hour, the Baron started to glide away. Harry called to get Nick's attention, "Nick, I need to talk to you."

Nick glided his way, "Harry, what I may do for you?"

"I have been looking for something for a while now. It is something that I have seen in someone's memories but that's all."

Nick mused, "Do you know where it is or what it is?"

"Yes, it is the diadem of Ravenclaw which has been hidden for centuries now. Recently I saw it in Tom Riddle's memories. I saw it in a very large room with windows, a high ceiling and piles of junk the size of small hills. I think the room is somewhere in the castle, but I don't know where."

Nick's head wobbled dangerously as he shook it, "Harry, I don't know anything about a room like that."

He was about to pass through a wall when Harry cried out in desperation, "Wait, I don't want to ask about that but something else."

Nick came back to him, "What else may I help you with?"

Harry asked him hesitantly, "Do you know anything about Helena Ravenclaw?"

Nick mused, "Helena Ravenclaw? Why do you ask about her?"

Harry spoke putting emphasis on every syllable, "Because. She. Was. The. Last. One. who had Ravenclaw's Diadem. Now can you tell me about her?"

Nick gathered his thoughts for a while before he began to speak, "You ask me about Helena Ravenclaw. I do indeed know a little more than others about her. When she ran away with her mother's diadem, Rowena sent a wizard after her to bring her back. The wizard tracked her to some distant corner of Europe but could not persuade her to return to Hogwarts. When he failed in the job, he did something unforgiveable to her. What he did to her is her own secret and she would be offended if I told you. If you want to know more then go and see the Grey Lady, the ghost of Ravenclaw tower."

With that Nick glided through the wall leaving Harry befuddled. It brought him back to the place from where they had started. A ghost had told him to talk to another ghost and specifically the Ghost of Ravenclaw Tower? He knew a little about the life of Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington (Nick) and even the Fat Friar but there was virtually nothing that he had heard about the Grey Lady. The same way, almost nothing was known about the Bloody Baron. He wore those chains splattered with blood but whose blood was it? Maybe it was his or maybe it was someone else'.

He recalled the words Nick had said to him and a tiny flicker of hope arose in his heart. What if! No, he couldn't even think of it. It was just too good to be true but he really needed to see the Grey lady. May be he could ask Luna to accompany him. She would be able to help him.

**London**

The fireplace flared in the entrance hall of the Rosier Manor and an Auror stepped out clutching a piece of rope. Remus who had taken to staying around the entrance hall as often as he could was immediately upon the scene.

The Auror shoved the rope into his hand, "Portkey to Wiltshire. Werewolves have attacked a local village."

Remus took the rope and hollered for his men while making sure that the Auror had left through the fireplace. As his men assembled, he took the floo off the network. The manor had wards which wouldn't allow others to come in and the only way in was the floo. He had thought that Alastor himself would bring him the portkey but he had sent an underling. Remus was not going to just blindly trust that the man was indeed an Auror.

He had the hit-wizards patrol the property all the time till he returned while asking 4 of them to remain around the fireplace, just in case. While he was doing this, his men had gathered before him. As they were all getting in line, he told his elf to take the report to Harry.

After taking care of that little detail, he showed the rope to them and said, "The ministry has asked us for help. We will help them but I want only those who can wield a wand so that if it is a trap, we will be able to hold our own until help arrives."

He selected 10 of them who could wield wands and taking hold of the piece of rope, they were gone.

When they arrived in Wiltshire, they found that the village was actually under attack. About a dozen Aurors were in combat with 30 or so death eaters. To his horror he realised that there were about 20 werewolves mixed in with the death eaters. The only mercy was that it was not a full moon night so no one would be turned.

Signalling his men to attack, he let out a war cry and attacked two of the werewolves who were fighting one Auror. The Auror had an injury on his arm which was bleeding but he was holding his own against them. Wasting no time, Remus conjured a silver dagger which he banished at one of them and it impaled him in the throat. The werewolf fell to the ground, his body lifeless.

The other werewolf who had been distracted by this took a Bombarda to his chest which blew it apart.

The Auror had sent the lethal spell, taking advantage of the distraction Lupin had caused. Signalling the Auror to attack other wizards, Remus turned to find his next opponent, when he heard somebody challenge him, "Lupin, turn and face me."

Remus turned to find Fenrir Greyback himself who had just killed one of Remus's werewolves. Seeing Greyback, Remus felt the blood rushing to his head. Bellowing a guttural cry, he charged the werewolf.

Greyback could not keep himself away from the allure of battle and the chance to kill a few of the Aurors and the ministry's werewolves. He had come here despite the warnings from the members of Voldemort's inner circle.

As Remus ran towards him, Greyback also charged him. At the last possible moment, he jumped to lunge at Remus. But Remus saw the attack coming and flattened himself to the ground, causing Greyback to pass through thin air and tumble to the ground. The older werewolf tucked into a roll and tumbled back to his feet. By the time he did, he turned to find Remus facing him with a sword in one hand and the other hand behind his back. In his hidden hand was a dagger, the same one Harry had given him. Remus hadn't known it at the time, but Harry later told him that he had worked some dark curses into its blade and any werewolf to be so much as scratched by it would die a horrible death.

He started circling Fenrir who was equally apprehensive now. Fenrir lunged to his right side, thinking that he had gotten past Lupin's guard. With a twist of his body and a flash of the enchanted silver, the dagger flashed out and nicked Greyback as Lupin deftly dodged the attack. In his adrenalin induced state, Greyback hadn't even noticed that he was scratched and wouldn't have cared even if he did notice.

Lupin felt the dagger strike home. He knew it wasn't a deep cut and the fight may go on for some time yet, but he knew the older werewolf's fate was already sealed. All he had to do was keep his opponent busy while the curse took effect. But if he got the opportunity to strike again, he wouldn't pass it up. It was Fenrir Greyback who had attacked him and turned him into a werewolf all those years ago. Remus was going to pay him back for that tonight.

Greyback was being cautious, keeping an eye on his hands. He suddenly batted the sword aside and lunged forward, taking a swipe at Lupin's chest with his claws. Lupin stepped back, but not far enough, the claws leaving furrows in his flesh. While Greyback was close in though, the dagger flashed out and cut him again but missed this time.

Remus' eyes flashed amber as he howled out in pain but he refused to give into the rage that would have robbed him of his reason. He needed to outthink the crafty older werewolf and that wasn't going to happen if he attacked like a brainless beast.

* * *

The search for Luna ended when Harry found her out on the castle grounds, feeding Blackstorm. The Hippogriff was contentedly quivering with pleasure as he allowed Luna to play with his feathers and pet him.

Luna felt his presence before she saw him. Without turning to him, she said, "You have come to ask me to go and find the Grey lady, haven't you?"

Before Harry could answer her, Remus' elf popped in before him and squeaked, "Master Harry, Master Moony be in danger. He be gone to fight where wolves."

Harry turned to Luna, "I will see you later, Luna." He turned to the elf, "Take me to Neville Longbottom, will you?"

The elf took his hand and they apparated into the fifth year dorm where Neville almost fell off his bed. He picked himself up and said, "Nice way to pop in, mate."

Harry, who had no time for niceties, growled, "Get your sword and your armour, Longbottom. We're going hunting."

Ronald was not in the dorm. Harry sent his patronus to Ron while putting his armour on, "Come to the common room with Hermione. Bring your swords and armour. Elf will come to pick you both up. Make haste."

As the snow leopard ran away, Harry and Neville had caught hold of the elf's hand and Harry told her, "Take us to your master."

When they appeared in Wiltshire, the battle was in full progress. He turned to the elf, "Go to Hogwarts and bring Hermione and Ronald here, will you?"

The elf disappeared and Harry motioned for Neville to take on two werewolves who were in combat with those from the Rosier estate. To distinguish his men from Voldemort's, Harry had them wear Crimson robes which were a lighter shade than the Auror uniforms. Neville knew of this fact and took on those who were not wearing the uniforms.

As he ran towards Remus, a werewolf ran at him but with a motion of his hand, a dagger which he had summoned from his dagger belt left his hand and buried itself in the werewolf's neck. Another werewolf who charged at him found his head hurtling through the air having been decapitated in one strike.

Moody who was in the battle and was getting tired with the number of enemies he had slain, was elated when he saw the head hurtling through the air. To him it meant that the butcher had arrived!

Harry wanted to interfere in Remus's duel. He saw that he was wounded and blood was flowing freely from the wounds on his arms and torso but before he could do anything, Remus growled, "Stay out of it. Help the Aurors. This is between me and him."

Harry decided to let Remus handle it. He charged the death eaters who were in sufficient numbers to keep him busy. He started sending lightning bolts, conjured daggers and many curses at them. Neville had also made short work of one of the werewolves and was running towards another one. This one decided to charge him instead and as he ran, Neville braced himself to receive the charge on the point of his sword suddenly. The werewolf could not stop before he impaled himself on it. The blade exited through his spine. Wrenching his sword free of the dead weight, Neville joined one of the crimson clad werewolves in annihilating hostile werewolves and death eaters alike.

Ron and Hermione had been returning to the Common Room from the library when they received the message. They ran all the way to the Common Room and up to their dorms. When Hermione arrived back in the common room, in her armour, sword in hand, she found Ron and the house elf waiting for her there. The elf caught both their hands and disapparated with a loud crack.

By the time they arrived, the battle was coming to a close. There were only a few death eaters that remained standing. They could see Neville as he killed another werewolf by stabbing him through the throat with his sword. Harry was swinging his sword and had just killed another werewolf. The battle was mostly concentrated upon the place now where Remus was still fighting with Greyback.

Remus had lost his sword. It lay several paces away and Greyback and Remus were both covered with blood. The threat of Remus's enchanted dagger offset the greater strength and experience of Greyback. It did seem that the older werewolf was not moving as quickly as he had at the beginning of the fight. When Greyback was distracted, wiping the blood from his eyes, Remus sheathed the enchanted dagger and conjured an ordinary silver dagger in its place.

Greyback, who could not discern the difference, took a swipe at his left hand, knocking the dagger well out of reach. With a kick to his chest, Remus was knocked to the ground.

Greyback smirked viciously, thinking he was about to kill Lupin for good, "You know I felt merciful when I let you live all those years ago when I turned you. I should have killed you then but not to worry. I will correct that wrong today. Today you will die at my hands, Lupin and soon Peverell will follow you."

As he lunged for Lupin, Remus thrust his arm forward holding the enchanted dagger once more. This time, Greyback had no time to twist midway in the air. The dagger pierced his flesh and entered his abdomen. Remus kicked him away and he was thrown to the ground.

Remus stood and walked up to him, making guttural noises in his throat, his eyes flickering to amber and growled, "Today you die at my hands, Greyback. You ruined my life and those of many more. You turned me into a despicable being and I have waited for this day. Today, I avenge myself upon you."

By this time, the curse in the dagger was starting to take its full effect. Greyback's skin was drying quickly, flesh disappearing from his bones. He was turning into a mummy as he died. Remus twisted the dagger in his stomach before pulling it out. He roared as he plunged the dagger into the older werewolf over and over again. His arm worked with such speed that no one could say how many times the blade fell in the next minute. In that attack, he vented all the rage for what Greyback had done to him, the anguish for being treated as a diseased beast, the agony he went through at every full moon, the lost opportunities for friendship, for love. His aspect was so fearsome that not even Harry dared to approach him and tell him that the other werewolf was long dead.

Sirius who had apparated in at some time during the duel was the one to step forward. He caught Lupin's arm while saying loudly, "Moony, that's enough. He's dead Moony. He is dead. Remus let go."

Finally Remus seemed to hear what was being said to him. Sirius hugged him tightly while saying words of comfort in his ear. Remus wept unashamedly. Finally more Aurors started to arrive. Tonks who was among them took charge of Remus from him.

Sirius then turned to Harry, "Pup the battle is over. Return to the school now. You can call Remus later and talk to him."

Harry nodded and as Neville and he were about to leave, he heard the cries of 'Harry' and found himself being engulfed in a mane of bushy hair. Telling her to calm down, he turned to Neville to see that Ron had hugged him hard. Deciding to return to the castle as soon as they could, he summoned Dobby and Winky and asked them to take them to Hogwarts.

A/N- Thank you all for the reviews. And you all guessed correctly. It is Abbadon.


	15. Chapter 15

**Hogwarts**

_**"Fenrir Greyback Killed**_

_Yesterday while attacking a local village in Wiltshire, the savage werewolf known as Fenrir Greyback was killed. A regular ministry patrol detected the attack and called for backup. They reported that werewolves were part of the force and requested additional forces. The force of 22 ministry Aurors were badly outnumbered by a force of 40 death eaters and another 20 werewolves when they engaged. _

_Shortly after the battle began, Remus Lupin, Regent of House Potter, arrived leading an undisclosed number of werewolves who engaged the dark forces. It seems that Lupin had a grudge to settle with Greyback because the moment he arrived, he went straight for the old werewolf to engage him in a duel. The battle was still undecided until members of The Order of the Snow Leopard arrived, laying waste to the death eater forces._

_Once again, the battle was over within minutes of the arrival of this mysterious order and still, nothing is known of their identities or their numbers. They seem to have good intelligence because they rarely miss out on an opportunity to tilt the balance of battle heavily in the ministry's favour._

_With the rest of the battle decided, Remus Lupin continued to duel with Greyback, forbidding anyone else to interfere. Wounded, exhausted but determined, he put an end to the terror that was Greyback. (For more details about Fenrir Greyback see page 5.)_

_When the bodies were counted, 30 of the death eaters and all 20 of their werewolves were among the dead. The Ministry lost 5 aurors and 3 of Lupin's pack gave their lives to stop the attack._

_Again the ministry is silent about the identities of the members of this Order of the Snow Leopard who always seem to arrive in the thick of things in the nick of time. The ministry is not ready to comment on their abilities or anything else related to them. _

_This voluntary offering of assistance of the werewolves to the ministry in dealing with this menace is seen a welcome step my many of the upstanding members of our society. It is being said that it is indicative of how the policies deployed by our General Longbottom with the repeal of the horrendous anti-werewolf legislation from the previous regime are bearing fruit for our society. We thank them for actively helping the ministry in our hour of need against Voldemort and his death eaters."_

The students were reading the news which featured on the front page.

After Susan was done reading the newspaper, she raised an eye brow at Harry and said to Harry with false sweetness, "Is there something you want to tell me, dear?"

Harry who was busy demolishing his third plate of bacon and eggs, was oblivious to what her tone really meant and walked into it head first. He replied around a mouthful of toast, "No Susan. Nothing I can think of right now, my love."

She looked around to see Hermione shaking her head and Neville trying to hide his grin behind his cup while Hannah was trying not to snicker. Daphne looked like she was interested to see what was going to happen next.

Realising that he had blundered somehow, he turned to Susan and asked sweetly, "Did I say something wrong, Sue?"

She waved the paper right under his nose and asked, "Were you ever going to tell me about this?"

Now Harry realised what she was talking about. He turned to her and said earnestly, "Sue, you are part of my team but the situation was dire. I had no time to send for everybody and wait. As it was, by the time we arrived, things were already going badly for the Aurors. Remus was engaged in a duel with Greyback and the Aurors were seriously outnumbered."

Hermione spoke before Susan could speak again, "He's right. He had sent for us but by the time we arrived, the battle was already over except for Remus still fighting Greyback. I would never forget how viciously he kept on stabbing Greyback after he was already dead."

Ron nodded, "Never thought the bloke had it in him to be so vicious. Not even to his mortal enemy."

Of course they had no idea what it was like for Remus to face the ridicule and discrimination that was a fact of life for being a werewolf. When he was turned, it had drastically changed everything for him. He never had a normal life from that time on. Likewise, his parents had to face a lot of difficulties due to raising him in secret. They could not begin to understand how much hatred he had for Greyback in his heart that what happened was a just and logical consequence.

**Unknown Castle**

The loss of Greyback was a setback which would be hard to overcome. In fact most of the werewolves were thinking of bolting from the death eaters. This was not their war either way. They could simply go to the Ministry and turn themselves in or cross the border and move into any of the neighbouring countries and not be bothered with a war.

The inner circle however was more worried for itself. Since Voldemort had left they had lost many of the members of the inner circle. Mulciber Sr. had been killed in the ambush where Bella too had been killed. Rookwood was out of the castle and doing some work on his own. Between all their failed raids, they had lost about 120 death eaters while the ministry's losses totalled maybe 50 Aurors at the most. With the numbers that had arrived from Voldemort's recruitment campaign, they were almost breaking even now. They had gained 200 but lost 120. That only meant a net increase of 80 new members among them. They didn't even know how they were supposed to act to make themselves known.

They also were worried about the werewolves. Their loyalty was fickle at best. Without Greyback to keep them in line, there was no telling what they would do next. Macnair was currently negotiating with them and trying to make them stay. So far it looked like it was not working.

Macnair was surrounded by werewolves who were baring their teeth at him, "We want to leave, Macnair. You lot have no clue how to conduct a war."

Macnair said desperately, "But the Dark Lord wants you to stay here. He will reward you all beyond your wildest dreams for your services."

The werewolf looked around then growled, "Well, he isn't here, is he? The Dark Lord is missing and we don't even know if he is alive anymore."

"Is there a problem, Mr. Macnair?", asked someone with a very thick accent and Macnair turned to see Emmett Wagner, a German mercenary approaching him.

Macnair said offhandedly, "They are refusing to serve the Dark Lord. They say that we should let them leave."

Wagner turned to the werewolves with a voice full of loathing, "None of you can leave unless your Dark Lord says so."

The werewolf said aggressively, "And what makes you think so?"

Emmett Wagner calmly pulled out his wand and levelling it at the werewolf, he intoned, "Crucio."

The werewolf bent double in pain, withering under the effect of the curse, his teeth chattering. His howls shook the hearts of even the most hardened ones. A few of the werewolf's companions tried to help their comrade but they were given a similar treatment by a group of Germans who seemed to appear at that moment. The torture went on for about 5 minutes. The werewolf started convulsing when he ended the spell.

Putting his wand to his throat, he said in highly magnified voice, "Is there anyone else who wants to leave?"

After seeing what had been done to one of them, the other werewolves quickly retreated, the thoughts of deserting long forgotten. To add to their woes and dispel the thought of fleeing from their minds, the Germans had taken over the security of the castle with them guarding every entrance and exit out of the castle.

Macnair gave a curt bow to Wagner who looked smug. Then he made his way to the chamber where the inner circle held its meetings. The remaining members of the inner circle were there, looking anxiously at him. He answered the unasked question, "The Germans have it under control. The werewolves won't desert, even without Greyback."

Before they could resume however, they were disturbed by the entrance of a handful of Germans with Emmett Wagner at their head. Malfoy stood to address them, "We thank you for your timely help, Mr. Emmett Wagner. Do you require anything?"

Emmett Wagner grunted, "You are all pathetic. Half of you cannot lead a campaign and your dark lord trusts you all to lead his militia?"

Dolohov snapped, "What do you mean?"

Emmett Wagner continued in the same vein, "You are idiots. You may be able fighters but certainly not leaders. You need your dark lord with you all the time to lead you."

Rudolphus grumbled, "You dare barge in here and insult us? Are you that eager to die?"

Emmett Wagner smirked evilly, "Mr. Lestrange, do not be ridiculous. You cannot hope to engage myself and my men and live to tell the tale. I have studied your last so called war. Your people got their way by bullying and threatening. Our people, on the other hand, are a disciplined fighting force. From the talk we have heard since we arrived, you cannot even carry out the simplest plan." He stopped to look around the room. Some people looked furious, but none of them refuted his words.

"Enough! You have insulted us enough", said Severus Snape who had just entered the room. Albus had sent him to find what the inner circle was doing since they always tried to strike back when the ministry gave them a vicious blow.

Emmett Wagner turned to him, "Ah! Mr. Snape. You are the only one I find sensible among these. These idiots would end up getting all their men killed in attempted ambushes and stand to gain nothing. How do you expect to launch a campaign on your ministry if all of your soldiers are dead? Half of them can't stand against a competent fighter for more than a minute while the other half is so predictable that they would be slaughtered easily by the ministry forces."

Dolohov asked him, "What do you suggest?"

Emmett Wagner said evasively, "There are things that we can teach you. But before we get to that, I need all of you to give your word that you will stay inside. Send no one on any ambush or intimidation unless I say so."

They all agreed instantly. Severus attended the meeting while keeping an eye on the German. He knew the German would be trouble.

**Hogwarts**

Valentine's Day was just 2 days away. Harry was still sweating over what to do for it. He was sure that he wanted to dazzle Susan but how? He had to do something that would make people jealous of their relationship.

He decided to turn to the one person he had heard was always the ladies man. Taking out his mirror, he called, "Padfoot".

Padfoot when he appeared in the mirror was in the Rosier Estate where Remus was confined to a bed with his wounds dressed. They both grinned at him. Harry asked Remus, "How are you doing?"

Remus looked down at his bandages, then looked up at Harry and smiled warmly, "I'm a werewolf, Cub. These scratches could have killed a normal man, but I'll be good as new by this time tomorrow. For the rest of it, I'm better than ever! I feel like I've exorcised all my demons. My heart is lighter than I can ever remember it being."

Harry smiled brightly, "That is good to know. I have a problem to deal with and I need the advice of wisdom beyond my years."

Remus was all ears about it, "What is the problem, Harry?"

Harry groaned, "Valentine's Day is in two days. Susan wants me to surprise her with something. I have thought of several ideas, but can think of nothing which would fit the bill."

Remus grinned, "And you want me to find a way out for you?"

Harry nodded fervently, "Yes! I want your help. Help me."

Remus smiled, "It is not me you want to help you, cub. I have never dated anyone nor did I express my love for them in a profound manner ever in my life. I mean I was forced to express my love for Dora only under the threat of death and at wand-point. It is Sirius you want. The old dog is real smooth with the ladies."

"Who are you calling an old dog, wolf? You haven't yet recovered of the wounds Greyback gave you and you have the audacity to call me old?", grumbled Sirius from out of the range of Harry's vision on Remus's side.

A moment later, Sirius's face came into view, "Pup, you want some expert advice?"

Harry nodded, "Yes. And I am desperate for it."

Sirius said thoughtfully, "Have you asked your friends for ideas?"

Harry nodded, "I did and they have no idea about it. I mean Neville is not even worrying about it, Ron apparently has some kind of cunning plan, Ernie is seriously thinking of showing the seriousness of his intent towards Lilith, Justin has something figured out. I am the only one left without ideas."

Sirius guffawed, "Oh, how the mighty has fallen!". After a moment, he continued, "Tell you what, pup. You do the simplest thing in the most magnificent manner."

Harry frowned, "And what is the simplest thing?"

Sirius smirked, "Why! Tell her that you love her. There is nothing simple as that."

Remus's face came into view again, "Provided you do love her. Do you not?"

Remus's question got him thinking. Did he really love Susan? They had started going out together and were considered a couple by even them who knew nothing about the existence of the contract. They had come so close in the little time that they had known each other but did he really love her?

He turned to Sirius, "I don't know what it feels like. I mean I haven't been in love before."

Sirius guffawed again, "It won't dance in your face and tell you that it is love. You will have to find it for yourself. To help you a little I would ask you to do some introspection. Think of your feelings for her. Do you care about her more than anyone else? Do you often strive to have her approval for your actions? Do you unconsciously try to always please her? Try to get one of those smiles from her that would light up your day?"

Harry asked him in turn, "Do you feel all that with Emmeline?"

Sirius scowled, "It is not about me Mister. It is about you and Susie. There is your answer."

Harry nodded, "Say I am affirmative about all your questions. What then?"

Sirius gave that half smile, "In that case, do some showmanship. You know a great many things which others do not. Do something spectacular for her which would be remembered in legends and profess your love for her in such a way that it would be remembered for ages. Remember you are a Marauder and a Marauder doesn't do things in half measures."

With that Sirius closed the connection without waiting for him to reply.

**Greece**

Tom Riddle was sitting before his master who had seated himself on a sort of throne like chair while Tom sat on the ground, his head bowed. This was the way that Abbadon treated his apprentices. Before him, they were all pieces of trash, nothing more. For the last two days, Abbadon had him do all the menial chores which were otherwise done by a house-elf and what was more, he didn't allow Voldemort to use any magic for it. What Voldemort had not realized was that in the days of mundane, back-breaking, repetitive, menial labour, he had fully regained both his physical strength and his coordination. He was able to stand up straight and pain-free.

"Why do you think you have failed again and again, boy?", Abbadon asked.

"I don't know master. I have tried to find this answer again and again. I think the prophecy may hold some answers for me."

Abbadon snapped, "The prophecy is irrelevant. What is important is that the boy is your enemy and you have to kill him at any cost. Without killing him, you won't stand to gain anything."

Voldemort nodded, "I understand master but his powers have increased and he is on an equal footing with me now if not worse. In fact he made me dread him once or twice."

"And what made you dread him?", asked Abbadon speculatively.

"I duelled with the boy the night I regained a body. That night he appeared to be a mediocre boy as you would expect a boy of 14 to be however there was fire in his eyes and defiance in his attitude. The fire in those eyes scared me a little. Then he resisted my Imperious curse and survived my killing curse for the second time. Six months later I clashed with him when I walked into an ambush set up by him and the ministry forces. He thoroughly beat me that time and I lost 70 of my followers. He had improved immensely and he fought like he had no equal in the world. The way he sidestepped my spells, the spells he used were all foreign to me. Then he defeated me in a battle of wills and tortured me when I tried to engage him in mental combat."

Abbadon nodded, "Your folly is showing in you losing to the boy again and again Voldemort. The boy possesses an unsullied soul which is whole and unblemished while yours is broken into wounded fragments. With each piece that you tore off, you ended up injuring yourself all the more. As to his increase in magical prowess, he has been trained by our mortal enemies."

"Our mortal enemies?", Voldemort asked.

Abbadon nodded, "Yes. The boy as you say is powerful and he has been trained by our enemies, the same ones who had you at their mercy in Romania. They have made him their champion. With them being on the other side, you can't hope to stand against him and win in your present state. You would need all your power with you. Tell me boy, are all your soul pieces safe?"

Voldemort frowned for a moment before he replied, "Yes master. Those soul pieces are safe. I hid them with adequate protections where no one could possibly find them."

Abbadon growled, "You seem very sure of yourself, Boy. When was the last time you checked on them?"

"I haven't been to check them, master, not since before I was defeated the first time", he replied. "But the places where I hid them are extremely secret. Even if someone did manage to stumble across them, they would not know what they had unless they knew about horcruxes."

Abbadon slapped him hard across the face, "Idiot! Foolish boy! Do you think you are better than everyone? Your hubris knows no bounds. There is no place impregnable enough and no enchantment strong enough that it can't be broken."

Voldemort was indeed angry and this showed in his countenance but the old wizard laughed at him, "What are you glaring at, boy? You can't harm me in the slightest. Besides you need me. Now lower your eyes unless you want me to punish you for your impudence."

Abbadon closed his eyes and thought for a few minutes before he started speaking, "your foe isn't an ordinary wizard. Having survived the killing curse twice is something that I could not have foreseen nor anticipated. What I am wondering about is, what would happen if you hit him with it for the third time. Tell me about what happened that night, boy?"

Voldemort closed his eyes and concentrated for the first time upon that night when he had lost his body. After about 5 minutes, he began to speak, "Master that night, I had been told the Fidelius secret of the Potters' hiding place. From what I knew of the prophecy, I knew that their son would have the power to vanquish me and I wanted to nip the threat in the bud. I killed the father easily but the mother tried to stop me. She pathetically begged me to spare her son. She wanted to die in his place and wailed those words over and over. I tried to reason with her and asked her to step aside but she kept asking me to spare the brat and kill her instead. I really tried to spare her life but she was not going to budge. So, I killed her and then turned my wand on the boy who was in his crib and crying. He didn't even know what was happening but I supposed that he was frightened. I cast the Killing Curse but it didn't kill him. Some sort of invisible shield appeared between the boy and me causing my curse to rebound upon me."

Abbadon was thoughtful for a few minutes before he started speaking again, "Thy folly lies in the fact that you acted without thinking, boy. You didn't even stop to think about the repercussions of your act. Why did you think of sparing her? Got some kind of weakness in you, boy?"

"A loyal follower of mine who brought me the news of the prophecy asked of me a boon to spare her life. He has been one of my most loyal and steadfast followers so I granted this boon to him. I promised him that I would spare the woman and kill the child. When she was not ready to step aside, I had to kill her."

Abbadon frowned, "That is why you failed, fool. I had told you that love is a magic which is largely incomprehensible for people, especially for people like us who have never known love or cannot love. It seems to me that she had invoked an ancient ritual which provided for unfailing protection to the child in return for her own life, that is, sacrifice of one life for another. It is no secret that there is no sacrifice bigger than self sacrifice. From the moment you killed her, the boy got a protection which is almost unheard of."

Voldemort folded his hands in a respectful gesture, "What shall I do then, my master?"

Abbadon continued to frown, "It looks like you are in deep trouble where the boy is concerned. You can touch him again because you used his blood in the ritual you performed to return to a body. Yet he is almost invincible. My enemies have trained the boy well. To win over him you will need all of your strength and magic. This seems impossible since you have shredded your soul into pieces. With each fragment that is destroyed you will lose more of your power. The boy will remain more powerful than you."

Voldemort beseeched him, "Is there no way, master?"

"There is one way but it is dangerous to your followers."

Voldemort stated plainly, "My followers have pledged their lives to my cause.". Then asked curiously, "What is that way, master?"

"The Parasite spell", Abbadon said simply.

"The Parasite spell?", Voldemort asked.

Abbadon nodded, "A simple spell which will allow you to claim the magical powers possessed by all of your followers. With so much power at your disposal you will be infinitesimally more powerful than the brat. But be warned that if you try this spell your followers would be augmenting your strength with theirs. In turn, they would be prone to harm."

Voldemort waved the last concern off, "My followers can die for me, master."

Abbadon smirked, "You think? Your followers will be the first to desert you if given the chance and sufficient motivation."

Voldemort decided not to reply to that. He turned to his master again, "Please teach me the parasite spell, master."

Abbadon laughed evilly, "May be tomorrow. It is time for you to cook supper. Remember not to burn it."

Voldemort sighed in frustration and retired from his presence. Abbadon was absent-mindedly rubbing a scar on the inner side of his left bicep muttering, "Harsh, we have a long overdue score to settle and by Merlin, I will avenge myself."

**Hogwarts**

A day before Valentine's, Vikram met Harry in the chamber of Secrets where Harry was busy destroying a horde of dummies. He waited patiently as Harry worked his way through the last of the dummies and turned it to dust. He then realised that Vikram was there and asked him, "Professor, is everything alright?"

Vikram nodded, "Yes everything is alright Harry. I just needed to tell you that for the moment all the mystics in Wizarding Britain including me are being called to Germany to help with some problem that has occurred there. It will take me a day or two before I can return. You will have to stay alert about anything that may happen."

Harry nodded, "Yes, Professor. I will keep my eyes open and eagerly await your return."

**Valentine's Day at Hogwarts**

Susan Bones woke up with eager anticipation on Valentine's Day morning. With some appreciation from her (read an intense snogging session), her boyfriend had decided to let the students have fun for today. He also had been behaving absent-mindedly for the last couple of days and Susan assumed it had been due to the war. Since Fenrir was killed, Harry was being very alert and paid attention to everything that was being said. If the werewolves rose in retaliation for the death of their alpha, things would get ugly. Today however she was determined to make him enjoy the day. Today was not a day to worry about.

When she woke up, the first thing she noticed was the fragrance of fresh roses. While plants and their fragrances were no big deal in the common room or the dorms, roses certainly weren't among the usual plants which graced the common room or the dorms. It was then she noticed an extremely large bouquet of freshly cut roses on her bedside table with a card in it. Smiling to herself and complimenting her loving boyfriend, she picked out the card.

The card was enchanted to sing. When she touched it, it rose into the air and started singing a dulcet melody,

_"The girl who is my love_

_The girl who stole my heart_

_The girl who brightened my life_

_The girl who smiles with radiance _

_The girl who accepts me for what I am_

_The girl who has always been at my side_

_You my love, you are the queen_

_Happy Valentine's Day, Sue. Come up to the Great Hall as soon as you can manage. It is a Hogsmeade Weekend and there are things that must be done."_

She heard the message and grinning goofily the way a person in love does, she got up to go to the bathroom. She noticed Hannah staring at the bouquet curiously.

She asked her, "What is the matter, Abbott?"

Hannah asked her, "Who sent this to you?"

She rolled her eyes, "Of course Harry did, why do you ask?"

Hannah grumbled, "I helped Neville put this together yesterday evening. I had assumed that he was going to gift it to me."

With that Susan walked off to get her toiletries and to get ready for the day ahead.

After 20 minutes, Susan was ready to go to the Great Hall. As she was putting on her cloak, Kitty appeared before her holding a small packet in her hands. The elf presented it to her, "Master has sent it for you, mistress."

"Thank you Kitty", she told the elf politely. She took the packet and opened it. It contained a silver chain with a ruby dangling in the middle of it. She put the chain around her neck and exited the common room to find that Harry was not there to escort her to the Great Hall.

"Now this is strange", she thought. She had thought that Harry would be there to greet her then escort her to the Great Hall and maybe, if they could get a moment or two, they would have kissed some. But her boyfriend was not here and apparently waited for her to come to him.

Shrugging her shoulders, she started towards the Great Hall when the ceiling started to rain flower petals on her. A few girls were following her at a distance and apparently were jealous of the way she was being greeted. She understood it was Harry's doing. She walked forward. About half-way, she encountered tiny snow-flakes which lodged themselves in her hair that she had tied in an elaborate braid for today. She did not care to bursh them off as she had not cared to brush away the flower petals.

Hannah who was walking beside her grumbled, "That is so romantic. I wonder if my boyfriend has gotten lost."

Susan shrugged, "Well I can't complain about mine."

As they were nearing the Great Hall, a flock of white doves started flying around her and showering her with more flowers. Then two little fairies (She was sure they had been conjured) set a silver tiny circlet on her head and she seemed to glow. She understood the circlet was charmed that way. As she entered the Great Hall, there was a loud bang and there were miniature wizards zooming around on tiny little brooms around her, escorting her towards the Gryffindor table where Harry was sitting with his friends. Before she could reach him however, there was a muffled sound of something bursting apart and the enchanted ceiling was replaced by a giant heart which burst open. These words were visible in the air, "SUSAN BONES, YOU HAVE BEEN MERLIN-SENT TO ME. YOU HAVE FILLED MY LIFE WITH HAPPINESS AND EVERY MOMENT THAT I SPENT WITH YOU HAS BEEN A MOMENT IN PARADISE. I LOVE YOU. DO YOU LOVE ME?"

Susan's eyes were tearing up and there was Harry standing at his place at the Gryffindor table, grinning goofily. She walked up to him at a brisk pace amid cat-calls and hoots from the students who were in the room, watching everything with interest. She noticed that Hermione looked like she was ecstatic with the display being put on. Many witches looked jealous. The boys looked as if they were re-thinking the surprises they had planned for the day and how their attempts were rather pedestrian in comparison to this.

Harry had his arms open and that lop-sided grin which always made Susan go weak in the knees. Without wasting a moment, she covered the distance running and threw herself into his arms, almost bowling him over. If he were still the same puny little runty Harry Potter he used to be, they would have fallen over but he held her firm and hugged her hard.

Susan didn't know how much time had passed. It may as well have been an hour or merely a minute but what mattered was that Harry had finally proclaimed his love for her. Auntie had been right- Harry was in love with her and he just didn't know it yet. (See Chapter 35 of the last story for this reference).

"Ah, young love. How blessed it is to be so carefree and in love", said Dumbledore from the staff table while he wiped a tear from his eye. The usually stoic looking McGonagall was trying to maintain her composure while everyone could see the dents in her hard exterior. Snape, well Snape for once had abandoned all pretence and looked like he was lost somewhere very far-far away while his eyes had acquired a dreamy look, like Luna often sported.

Finally Harry gently extricated himself from her embrace and whispered in her ear, "If you please, Miss Bones. I am still waiting for the answer to my question."

She smacked him on the arm and said hoarsely, "Idiot, I have been in love with you since I don't know when."

Seeing that order was not going to restore itself in the great Hall, McGonagall said a bit loudly, "Now if you all will please return to your seats. We still have the breakfast hour to pass."

Harry and Susan sat side by side where their friends joined them. The first to find his voice was Ron, "Bloody brilliant, mate. That was some show. My surprise seems tame in comparison."

Hermione huffed, "Let me be the judge of that Ron."

Ron murmured to himself, "I had planned to find a secluded spot to say this but after this I won't stay behind him by far at least in courage." He waved his wand in an intricate motion and produced a bouquet which contained tulips, carnations, red roses and orchids. There was a card in between the bouquet which Hermione picked up to read for herself. It read-

_"I may try to proclaim my love to you in the grandest way possible but there is nothing more magnificent for me than my love for you. I can try to use some of my brain and write some pretty words for you but there is nothing prettier in the entire world than you. I can try to define what my love means for you but there are no words in the dictionary which can say it aloud the way my actions do. I love you Hermione Granger."_

Hermione's eyes watered and she pulled him into her embrace murmuring, "I love you too, Ron."

When she let go of him, he looked dazed as if thinking, "Huh, that went all right."

Harry was talking to Ron, "go on and kiss her, Ron. I know you want to."

Luna who had drifted to their table at that moment said in her dreamy voice, "They do that all the time in the broom closet on the fifth floor."

When Ron and Hermione lowered their heads groaning in embarrassment, Luna turned to Harry, "Meet me this evening outside the Ravenclaw tower, Harry. I just hope that it has not become too late by then."

With that cryptic message, she skipped away leaving Harry mystified.

Justin had decided to keep things simple. He simply produced a long stemmed red rose for Isobel and presented it to her, "I love you, Isobel McDougall."

Shyly, she took the rose from his hand while gently nudging his fingers with her lips.

As the Gryffindors had set the example and a Hufflepuff had followed it, Ernie Mcmillan gathered his courage and decided to do his bit. He went down on one knee and pulled out a ring which looked magnificent. It was made of a silver band with an emerald atop it being surrounded by little diamonds. He took one of Lilith's hands and slipped it onto her finger saying, "I have loved you since I have started to know you and I know that there is no one else in the world that I want to be with. I wish to marry you. This ring is the symbol of the word of a McMillan that I will fulfil my promise at the appropriate moment."

Lilith, overwhelmed with the gesture took his hand and dragged him away out of the Great hall. With these things happening, many witches were wistfully looking at their boy-friends to surpass or at least equal the three boys in their gestures. Needless to say, there were many grumbling boys in the Great Hall who felt their surprises fell very short of the mark set by Harold Peverell and co.

Hannah who was yet to see her boyfriend, asked Harry, "Where is Neville?"

Harry grinned, "He refused to tell me anything more than he will wait for you in Paradise. Now I didn't know that Paradise is on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Apparently, he thought that you'd understand the allusion well enough."

Hannah blushed as she turned to Susan and spoke in her squeaky voice, "I will see you later, Susie."

Susan beamed at her, "Go Hannah! Win over Longbottom."

As Hannah left the Great Hall, McGonagall at the staff table said to herself, "How soon these kids grow up."

**Paradise**

Leaving Harry and co. in the Great Hall, let us follow Hannah Abbott to Paradise. Where Paradise is, we know not but apparently Hannah did. She walked toward the Greenhouses. When she reached them, she walked past them to a plot of land further up. This plot of land had been unutilised for years now. It was where Neville had started gardening after Professor Sprout had banned him from the Greenhouses except during class hours. Readers may remember that he sent Hannah a dungbomb wrapped in a gift paper. She had almost laid waste to the Greenhouse in rage.

Neville had dubbed this plot of land 'Paradise' and Neville grew mundane plants here. The garden was surrounded by a little wall to keep animals away from it. Today it was shrouded in mist. When she stepped on the threshold, the mist dissipated around her and then covered her again as she was in. A few steps inside, she was treated to the fragrance from a multitude of flowers. Garlands of flowers hung in the air unsupported, spreading their sweet fragrance. She could recognise Red Rose, Carnation, Tulip, Orchid, Sunflower, Chrysanthemum, Violet and Zinnia among others. In fact the decorations were so tasteful that it becomes hard for the author to describe them here. Just think to what lengths a gardener adept at magic can go to when he is decorating his garden. I hope you got your answer.

There were conjured birds flying around the plot of land singing melodies of love for her. In the middle was laid a harp and when out of curiosity, she touched its strings it started to sing a tune so melodious that Hannah wanted to cry in ecstasy and joy.

Finally Neville became visible, dressed in his finest robe, his hair combed back and a grin at the corners of his lips. Waving his wand, he conjured a loveseat. Taking her gently by her arm, he guided her to sit on it.

Then the moment came when he sat on his haunches and said earnestly, "Hannah Abbott, you have made me feel alive since I have started to know you. You have shown me how beautiful life can be with love. I fell in love with you since I don't know when but I realised I had never said it. I love you with all my heart."

While Neville proclaimed his love for her, he had been projecting a little of his magic outwards and she swooned under its influence. She pulled him up by his shoulders and kissed him deeply. After the kiss lasted for more than a minute, she broke off and asked him, "What is the plan for today?"

Neville grinned, "The plan is for us to spend the day here away from everyone. I have even asked Slinky not to disturb us. This place is protected by the strongest wards that this apprentice of Dumbledore can construct."

Hannah grinned, "Looks like you have planned everything. What are you waiting for then?"

Grinning Neville joined her on the loveseat, pulled her into his embrace and kissed her passionately.

Let's leave the happy couple in Paradise and follow others to Hogsmeade to see what they have planned for their day.

Those going to the village had formed a single line from the Great Hall to the gates of the school where the Aurors and Filch were checking everyone before they let them through. Carriages stood ready to take the students to the village. They alighted in as per their preference. Since it was not raining, the tops of the carriages were down for the day. They enjoyed the chill of the morning.

Harry and Susan were at the back of the line with their friends. It was then that Harry noticed Daphne with Astoria. Wondering why he had not seen her today, he called out to her, "Daphne, come and join us."

Daphne left Astoria and joined them smiling, "How is it going?"

Harry did not notice it but Susan did. Daphne was wearing a thick layer of makeup to hide her puffy eyes. It was clear that she had been crying. Coupled with her absence at the Gryffindor table, she understood the reason. She warmly pulled her into a hug whispering in her ear, "I am sorry, Daph. If I had known I would have asked him not to bother with all of the fuss."

Daphne smiled ruefully, "And you would be an idiot if you did that, Bones. I am happy if you are. We are best friends, remember?"

Susan smiled brightly, "of course. So, will you join us in the village today?".

She asked uncertainly, "Are you sure that I would not be an inconvenience to you?"

Harry waved her off, "Nonsense Daph. You are welcome to join us at least until we go to the inn."

Susan eyed him, "What exactly do you have planned?"

Harry grinned, "That would be telling, Sue."

Before she could say anything more, Daphne poked her shoulder hard and pointed in one direction. Following the direction of her finger, they found the strangest sight. Millicent Bulstrode and Draco Malfoy had joined the line and they were holding hands happily. Millicent would steal a glance at him and then blush hard. Her lipstick was ruined and that gave the others a lot to talk about. What fuelled the most speculation was the ring with the opal on Millicent's finger.

Hermione said, "They look happy together."

Ron nodded, "Well Malfoy looks happy enough with her. He actually made a good decision, giving that ring to her."

_**-Flashback-**_

Unknown to the rest of his friends, Malfoy had met Harry in the corridors one day. Bowing his head, he said respectfully, "Lord Black, I need a favour of you."

Harry quickly checked to make sure that there was no one else around. He turned to him, "Go ahead Draco. I am listening."

Draco fretted, "I... uh... I wanted... permission."

"Permission? Permission for what?"

Draco had gather what little courage he had by then, "I want your permission to court Millicent Bulstrode. I want to give her a ring to signify my sincerity and commitment to our relationship."

Harry asked him warily, "What's the catch, Draco?"

Draco shook his head, "There really is none. I am genuinely interested in courting her."

Harry smiled, "If you are in earnest, then as Lord Black, I give you my blessings to court her."

_**-Flashback ends-**_

The line had moved forward a little when Tracy joined them with Fred at her side. She was out of breath and when she saw Daphne, she hugged her giddily.

Daphne asked her, "What happened, Trace?"

Tracy refused to say anything.

Harry turned to Fred, "Alright you old smoothie, tell us what you did?"

Fred shook his head, "Not a secret for your young years, Harrikins."

Since Fred refused to speak of the secret, the author is afraid that we would not know of it.

On the way to the village, Harry found out that there were only about ten Aurors on duty in the village. There were twenty five the last time. Apparently, some were called away to fend off some attack in the distant east so the number of guards had been reduced.

When they reached the inn, Harry turned to Daphne, "If you would excuse us Daph, we're off to London."

Susan turned to him, "Where in London?"

Harry grinned, "Hestia's hearth. Mr. O'Neil has a parlour ready for us."

Susan turned to Daphne, "Why don't you join us?"

Daphne scowled, "Get on with it, Bones. I don't want to be the third wheel. Go and enjoy."

In Hestia's hearth, Mr. O'Neil led them to the grandest of his parlours which he had reserved for them. He left them with an army of servers and a small mountain of appetisers.

They made some small talk while they perused the menu with the special dishes which were being prepared for the day as the servers stood on alert, ready to take their orders.

Suddenly the door of the parlour flew open and Mr. O'Neil came in running, shouting at the top of his voice, "DEATH EATER ATTACK AT HOGSMEADE".

* * *

**A/N- hey guys, please leave me some reviews? I put in a lot of thoughts for this one. And the next one will be exciting, I promise. Here is a sneak-peek-**

As he finished speaking, the wards exploded with a bang again and a great shadow came upon the battle field. The shadow of a giant bird with a wingspan of about 20 feets. The bird went into a nose dive and levelled about 5 feet off the ground and the students realised it was Blackstorm. Neville Longbottom jumped down and immediately sent a blasting hex at one of the death eaters who was levelling his wand at him. The man didn't realise before his head was blown away.

Wagnerscoffed, "A child! They have sent a child against us? Is that it?"

A cold voice which could freeze the blood in veins growled, "He is not alone."

There was Albus Dumbledore, the victor of Bavaria with his wand in one hand, Fawkes the phoenix on his shoulder and cold fire in the abyss of his eyes. Wagneractually shuddered when he saw Albus Dumbledore but he was here to do a job. Without any warning, he sent a curse at Dumbledore who conjured a flock of canaries in its way while he shouted, "Get the students to safety."

He saw that Justin had taken a hit and fell down and also saw Ron's attempts to save the students while dragging Hermione away who looked reluctant to leave. He saw the volley of curses and did what came to his mind at first. The Nagas had taught him to will the earth to obey his commands. It was a power which took a lot out of a wizard so it was not advisable to try to often and certainly not for something massive and humongous but the occasion was desparate and he screamed in parsel tongue while he stomped his feet and the earthen wall had rose to the challenge.

Harry and Neville had divided territory among them and while Neville liberally used his choice spells against the death eaters, Harry started the charge with the lightning bolts which seared a few of the death eaters before they decided that they would stand a chance if they attacked him together. Harry rushed into them while casting with his hand and wand. His movements were so fast and fluid that others could not make it out but death eaters were dying left and right. One fell missing most of his face; one fell with a spike through his heart, another fell missing most of the right side of his body. By the time that Harry slowed down he had killed 5 more. It was then that he heard the heart rending cry, "Harry, SUSAN IS DOWN!"


	16. Chapter 16

**THE BATTLE OF HOGSMEADE**

**Hogsmeade**

The death eaters had already carefully surveyed the place where they were to attack. They knew what they were to do. They entered the village under heavy glamour charms with the Germans at their side. It was Emmett Wagner's idea in the first place to attack the village.

This morning, he gathered what was left of the inner circle together and addressed them straightforwardly, "The way you are fighting will not win you a war. Your enemy is bold as brass and they have trounced you every time you show up. If you want to win against them then you have to make them fear you. If you want them to fear you then you have to hit them where it will hurt the most. They prize their children above all. They treasure them. I have gathered intelligence that shows today is an opportune time to strike." He started ticking off the points, "First, it is a Hogsmeade weekend, meaning that the students will be out of the castle and vulnerable. Second, there is a conflict in the east. Many of the Ministry Aurors have been called away to assist in that conflict, meaning that the usual compliment of Aurors will not be in the village. Third, this being Valentine's Day, they will likely be distracted with their celebrations."

He looked around the room to see that his reasoning was sinking in, then continued, "We will send some of our own to raise wards around the village while we attack them in numbers and kill as many as we can. Since it will take time for them to break the wards, we will cause as much mayhem as we can and then we will make ourselves scarce. We may lose a few men but we will have dealt a blow to them which will make them shudder with fright."

The members of the inner circle needed no more convincing. They immediately agreed to the plan. Lucius instantly went off to arrange for the necessary strike force. Their plan was to send in teams of 4 wizards each to the shops and keep the students hostage. They would have no qualms about killing a few of them if they so fancied. When the ministry forces did arrive, they would have a lot of trouble getting past the wards.

Three of their ward masters raised the wards then made themselves scarce. They were to hide and wait for the signal to take down the wards when it was time.

Von Pelt strolled up the high street carelessly and bumped into Cormac McLaggen. The young bravo rudely responded by saying, "Watch where you're going idiot."

Deciding that he was as good a target as any, Von Pelt whipped out his wand and fired a spell at McLaggen. He couldn't dodge it and instantly fell to the ground convulsing. McLaggen's friends ran hither and thither while he relayed orders to his men.

A few of the students who had seen what was happening had tried to attack the death eaters but they paid for it by being shot. In the span of a few minutes 5 students were down.

**Hestia's Hearth**

Harry leapt from his chair with his wand in his hand and asked him quickly, "What happened Mr. O'Neil?"

He said between his gasping breaths, "The death eaters have attacked Hogsmeade. One of my customers who is at the village just flooed to me and informed me about it."

Harry turned to Susan, "Sue, I am sorry that…"

She interrupted him mid-sentence, "We don't have time to waste, Harry. Our friends are in danger. We are needed there NOW."

Turning to Mr. O'Neil, he said, "Gather whatever resources you have. We are going."

With that he caught her hand and disapparated.

**Hogsmeade**

Daphne had just entered the Three Broomsticks when she spotted Ron and Hermione at a table in the corner where Hermione was lost in a book and Ronald looked on fondly. She made a beeline towards them and found that the book was a romance novel!

She took the book from her hand and said to her, "Really Hermione? You have your boyfriend right here and you are reading a novel?"

Hermione smiled sheepishly, "Ron gifted it to me. I couldn't resist."

Daphne snorted, "Only you Hermione!"

Daphne could see that Ron and Hermione were being kind to her and they wanted some privacy but couldn't ask her gently. She had just decided that she would leave them in peace when she felt an oppressive feeling about her and turned to the duo, "Did you feel that? The air just got heavier and stifling."

Hermione nodded, "Like someone enchanted the air to be heavier like…"

Ron completed her sentence, "Like a ward!"

Hermione frowned, "Yes, like a ward. But why would anyone raise a ward in the village?"

Her question was answered when they heard spell fire outside. Before they could go nquire, four masked figures entered the inn. On their sight, the students stiffened in their seats. The one in the lead lowered his mask revealing the face of Travers, one of the escapees featured in the newspaper when Azkaban was raided.

He and his comrades had their wands out, aimed at the students, "We have taken the village captive. Don't try anything or you will pay for your foolishness with your life."

Hermione scanned the crowd and realised that at least 10 members of the Order of the Snow Leopard were present in the crowd. Since she was sitting, her hands weren't visible and she summoned her wand to her hand from the holster while silently thanking Harry for the foresight of gifting all of them with a wand holster.

She tapped on it lightly while looking up, not at her wrist as to give her game away. The message was delivered to the intended recipients. It read, "D. E. Attack at the village. We charge on "Now."

She stood from her place, turning to the death eaters and said defiantly, "You are not welcome here. Retreat before the ministry gets here and kills you all."

The death eater turned his wand on her, "Do you not love your life?"

One of the wizards at his side said, "It's the mudblood. Kill her."

Before Travers could do anything Hermione spoke again, "Leave and you will live. If you don't then you will die NOW."

The words were the signal that the others were waiting for. With the word out of her mouth, spells flew from every direction towards the death eaters. Travers had seen the wands coming up. By instinct, he raised a shield. His comrades were not so lucky. One of them fell down with a couple of bone breakers to his ribs. Two more of them were peppered with bombarding spells or reductos.

Knowing the situation to be out of his control, Travers ran outside. He was not fool enough to try and take on 10 wizards at once who were using bone breakers with apparent ease.

Outside he ran into Wagner who was at the head of 30 death eaters while 50 more were making their way to their designated locations. Von Pelt asked him contemptuously, "What is the matter, Travers? Why are you running? Where are your companions?"

Travers wheezed, "Killed. They all died at the hands of the students."

Before Wagner could express his astonishment at the news, the door of the inn was blasted off its hinges. Ten wizards dashed out casting every offensive spell they knew at the death eaters. The death eaters took their positions and started answering.

Daphne had taken charge of a group of students. They were firing at the death eaters when they got the opportunity, dodging when they could not. She had divided them into pairs. One would cast in their turn after the other. Meanwhile, Hermione and Ron were sending messages on their wand holsters, grouping up all of their members who were present in the village to launch a counter offensive against the death eaters.

To their horror, a few students were already down on the road, not moving.

They knew they could keep the death eaters at bay for quite some time but not forever. They would need some serious help and that would soon come from Harold Peverell or Dumbledore or the Aurors.

Suddenly there was a war cry and Dawlish lead the Aurors of the Hogwarts outpost to engage the death eaters. The Aurors were better trained than the death eaters or the students. They attacked in formation, keeping enough space between each pair of them for dodging. They knew they were heavily outnumbered but they were undaunted. For each pair, the one in front kept a shield up while the one behind cast offensive spells as Moody had been training them. While they kept shields up at all times, it was plain to see that they were also dodging. The death eater spells would not have hit any of them even without the shields, but if someone got it into their head to try a wide area spell, that wasn't going to work either. Although there were only ten of them against 30, the Aurors were inflicting heavy losses on the death eaters.

With the attention of the death eaters diverted to the Aurors, The Order of the Snow leopard quickly retreated and took cover. It was better to get out of the field of fire so that the Aurors could use everything they had without worrying about hitting friendlies. That was when the death eater reserves broke cover and joined the battle. Even with ten of the death eaters down, the Aurors were still outnumbered 70 to ten. They were caught in a pincer movement that threatened to both outflank and surround them. They began to retreat down an alley to limit the death eater's arc of fire and prevent themselves from being surrounded but that limited their ability to dodge. The death eaters, seeing how things were going began to rain down on them with spell chains starting off with shield breakers. The wizards casting the shields were hard pressed to defend against the onslaught.

Of course, this meant that the death eaters had to choose between bunching up in the opening to the alley or retreating. They never even thought of retreat. Such a thing would be ludicrous with the annihilation of the Aurors imminent.

That was when The Order of the Snow Leopard responded in force. They had taken up positions on the roof-tops across the street from the opening to the alley. On Ron's signal, their wands all spoke with one voice and 10 of the death eaters in the rear took bone breakers to their heads. They went down instantly, most of them never to rise again. In the confusion that ensued, the wands fired a second volley, but the effect was greatly reduced as the German mercenaries among them raised shields. Only a few of them were struck by the second volley. In the next moment, they spread out in pairs and started firing back at the rooftops. They did a lot of property damage, but the students were no longer there.

None of the students were still there, not even the ones they had injured earlier. Daphne and her crew had acted swiftly the moment the death eaters were occupied, they conjured stretchers and whisked all the injured away to where she had set up a first aid station in the basement of Madame Puddyfoot's.

The Aurors, for the most part, looked like they had been mauled by an angry bear. Four of them were already out of action, injured, possibly dead. But they still held their place with a grim determination that would make a barnacle proud. They knew it was only a matter of seconds before reinforcements would arrive.

The death eaters were down to 60 active from their original force of 80. More than half of them were hunting students. Ron's forces were using every concealment spell they knew, looking for targets of opportunity among the death eaters who did not know that they were the hunted.

Some of the residents of the village when they saw that the students themselves were leading the resistance joined in. A few of them were shot instantly since they were not very good at defensive magic while others helped where they could. It was time to stand together and face this menace. In time help would arrive from Hogwarts or the Ministry.

Hermione's team was assisting the Aurors at their end. They were defending them more than attacking. The plan was to get the death eaters distracted enough to get the injured Aurors out of battle and send them to Daphne's team for treatment.

Ron's team kept on harassing the death eaters. When they least expected it, a spell would come from behind and take another one out. By the time they turned to meet the threat, the students were gone. They had only managed to pick off about four death eaters this way, but the intimidation factor was huge. A bit more of this and Ron would have them shooting at each other.

Ron's team would have been much more effective if they didn't have to look after the younger students. A lot of third year and fourth years who didn't know how to fight were to be escorted to safety. Only about 30 of the fighters of the Order were present in the village.

Dawlish had engaged Wagner in a duel and the Auror was taunting him as they battled. Dawlish was nimble on his feet and dodged anything that the German sent at him. Having Moody berate you every time you failed to dodge would do that to a person. He sent a castration hex at the German but Wagner rendered that useless with a shield. He was also getting frustrated with the Auror. He had kept Wagner at bay for 10 minutes now. While it promised to be an interesting duel, Wagner had to keep track of the time lest they find themselves vastly outnumbered.

As Dawlish dodged yet another spell, Wagner feinted casting to the right. As Dawlish dodged to the left, he slashed his wand up with a jerk in that direction. The spell which left his wand met the Auror with full force cutting him in various parts of the body. It was a lethal spell which cut into the Auror and he started to bleed profusely. Before Hermione or anyone else could do anything about it, a slicing hex put the Auror out of his misery.

While Daphne and her team were evacuating the wounded, the Twins led their team in securing the non-combatant students in the village and appointing defenders for them. They were to protect the students until help arrived. Daphne knew that it was possible that Harry might not have got the message yet. She only hoped that they would arrive quickly.

"Hello children, trying to be heroes?", said a grim faced death eater to the trio who were leading students to safety.

The twins flew into a rage seeing the death eater. They said to Daphne, not taking their eyes off the death-eater, "Get them to safety, Greengrass. We have a score to settle with this one."

It was obviously Dolohov who was smirking, "Children want to fight with me? You dream too big."

They said with uncharacteristic harshness, "We will see."

Daphne had wanted to stay and help them but decided that the students were her priority.

**Ministry of Magic**

The raid alarm was clanging away at full volume. All the Aurors present in the Ministry were scrambling to the staging area. To their surprise, the General himself came charging into that room as soon as they had started to gather. Moody was there, barking orders at them, "the death eater scum have attacked Hogsmeade. Our team at the outpost is in danger. Let's go."

Frank intervened before they could go off with that half baked order, "Alastor there must be wards around the place. How do you plan to get through them?"

That was a practical problem. The wards would have to be brought down or circumvented if they were to be able to arrive quickly. Who knew how many had already died?

Sirius came up with a solution, "my cottage is in Hogsmeade. It has a floo connection. I am ready to give the secret to everyone here. From there we can lead the attack."

Frank nodded as he turned to Alastor, "Form your teams and lead them to the floo point instantly, Alastor. We haven't got a moment to lose."

Many of the Aurors didn't need the secret since they had already been there. Within 5 minutes, Aurors were lined up and heading to the floo with Frank at the head of them.

Moody walked over to Sirius, "Black, where is your son?"

Sirius frowned, "I don't know. I guess he would be there fighting if he was in the village today. Anyway we will know soon enough."

As each Auror read the secret and went into the floo, Sirius sent a patronus to Moony at the Rosier Estate where he was with Dora who had taken leave from her duty to take care of him.

Before Frank left however, he beckoned Robards forward, "Gawain, you and Bartley Higgins are in-charge of the security of the ministry. You will remain here and see to it that we are aptly defended. We will be back soon after having put them in their places.

**Rosier Estate**

Dora was kissing Remus when the Dog Patronus walked in and spoke in Sirius's voice, "Hogsmeade is attacked. Rush to the village."

Dora was up in an instant. Remus's eyes flashed amber as he sprung from his bed. She glared at him, "What foolishness are you up to, Remus?"

He said agitatedly, "We are needed there, Dora. The death eaters are attacking."

She snapped, "You can't fight in your condition. You will only end up injuring yourself. Stay and I will go fight."

Remus tore away his bandages in one fluid motion, revealing that his wounds were nearly completely healed and almost shouted, "You've got to be joking. There's no way I'm going to lay about when my pup is in danger. Besides, I'm fine."

She knew there was no time to be lost in squabbles so she gave up, "Alright. Now how are we going? I suppose there will be wards around the place."

He nodded, "We'll floo to the cottage. It will be our quickest way in."

**Hogwarts**

Severus Snape was brewing a potion when the coin in his pocket heated up. Picking it out, he read the message, "Attack planned at Hogsmeade today. Happening Now."

He ran to the fire place, picked up a jar from the mantle, threw in a pinch of the powder and said firmly, "Headmaster's office, Hogwarts."

Dumbledore's office came into view where he was preening Fawkes' feathers and Snape shouted, "Albus, Hogsmeade is being attacked. I just received a message."

Dumbledore stood up quickly, whipping his wand, he sent two patroni while turning to the portraits of the headmaster's and Headmistresses barking orders at them.

Severus shouted, "I'll meet you at the front gates, Albus."

Albus said, "No. You will stay put. You showing up there will end your usefulness to us, Severus. We will handle this."

Severus gritted his teeth and said, "As you wish, Headmaster."

Albus whistled and Fawkes soared into the air. Albus caught hold of his tail and they disappeared to reappear at the gates.

One of the patroni had reached Neville who was in Paradise with Hannah. They were kissing at the time. The arrival of the patronus surprised them making them jump apart, "Hogsmeade is under attack. Get to the village quickly."

He turned to Hannah, "Han please for the sake of the love that I have for you, stay inside and find what order members you can. Rally them to secure the castle so that if the death eaters come calling, they will be in for an unpleasant surprise. I'm going to help others."

Leaving Hannah and without waiting for her to answer, Neville dashed across the grounds toward the main gate of the castle. About half-way, he met Blackstorm. Bowing to the beast he approached it. Blackstorm answered the bow with one of his own.

Neville caressed his sides and said, "My friend, I know you are bonded to Harry but today I have a need of you. Will you take me to the village as quickly as you can? Many lives may depend on it."

The beast nudged him as if saying, "Why are you wasting your time here? Get on and let's go."

Neville mounted the Hippogriff. Blackstorm wasted no time in taking to the air. In a few seconds they neared the gates. Then Neville remembered the war wards. He was afraid they would be killed by them but before they reached the edge, the wards shifted aside and allowed him to pass. Dumbledore had seen them approaching and willed the wards to give way to the Hippogriff. Once they passed, Dumbledore reset the wards to cover the school again then disapparated to the village.

McGonagall had received the patronus and instantly she was out of her office in her cat form running to the nearest window. She jumped down from that floor to another and then to another and arrived at the ground floor in half the time that it otherwise would have taken her.

She found some of the students rallying and moving towards the gates led by Colin Creevey. She changed back to her human form and asked him, "Mr. Creevey, what is the meaning of this?"

Colin turned to her, "Professor, the death eaters are attacking the village. We are going to fight."

She sternly said, "You will all go back inside and stay there. No one will leave the grounds unless the headmaster says so."

Colin protested, "Professor, we have to go. We have to fight."

Before McGonagall could say anymore, Hannah arrived and said sternly to Colin, "Obey her orders. You and these students under your command are to stay inside and defend the castle in case the death eaters come here. Adopt manoeuvre Thermopylae. These orders have come from Neville."

Colin dutifully turned and led the students inside the castle while telling them to deploy their numbers at the locations he wanted. This display of obedience by the students to Hannah's words left McGonagall amazed. She turned to her, "Miss Abbott, how?"

"Professor the students respect Neville and Harry and they wouldn't cross either of them. Neville told me to rally the students to the defence of the castle though it is possible that nothing will happen here. Since the orders come from Neville, they are executing it. Now if you will excuse me, I have a troop to command."

Saying that Hannah left McGonagall there and went inside the castle without waiting to answer any questions that the Professor may have. McGonagall knew what had happened at Thermopylae so she was a bit apprehensive too.

The students had already agreed upon the standard procedure in this condition. They had practiced it a great many times so that the students would know what to do. Within 10 minutes, the castle was being defended by the students and the teachers alike. McGonagall had activated some of the sentinel statues to patrol the borders and the grounds. Hagrid himself was at the double doors with his cross bow in one hand and his pink umbrella in the other. McGonagall had tried to ask if he needed anything, he shook his head and told her that by himself he could deal with as many of them as dared to come.

**Hogsmeade**

The members of the Order of the Phoenix started arriving at the edge of the wards where they were supposed to arrive after being informed about the attack. There was Podmore, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Fleur and a few more members who had responded almost immediately.

At the Auror's end in the middle of the battle, 5 Aurors were down while the remaining 5 were fighting alongside the students. Hermione and Ron stood back to back, fighting together. Justin and Isobel had joined them. Hermione had taken a bludgeoning hex earlier and she was panting with exertion while Ron was bleeding from his right elbow. About 3 more students were down and it was clear that they would die if help didn't arrive soon. Ron however was still optimistic and shouted over the din, "Just a few more minutes and Harry will be here. We have to hold them for just a few more minutes."

They were in trouble but they had given a good reckoning of themselves. About another ten death eaters were already down on the ground, dead. They were having a tough time because they were also trying to save the Aurors and the students who were wounded while the death eaters had no such compunctions.

Suddenly there was a blast to one side. Someone had clashed with the wards making them shudder but they held. Wagner who was firing constantly at the students, shouted over the tumult, "Finish quickly. They will be here soon."

As he finished speaking, there was a mighty explosion and the wards went down. About a few seconds later a great shadow came upon the battle field. The shadow of a giant bird with a wingspan of twenty feet or more. The bird went into a nose dive that levelled out 5 feet off the ground. The students realised it was Blackstorm. Neville Longbottom jumped down and immediately sent a blasting hex at one of the death eaters who was levelling his wand at him. The man didn't have time to realise what had happened before his head was blown away.

Wagner scoffed, "A child! They have sent a child against us? Is that it?"

A cold voice that could cause blood to run cold growled, "He is not alone."

There was Albus Dumbledore, the victor of Bavaria with his wand in one hand, Fawkes the phoenix on his shoulder and cold fire in the abyss of his eyes. Von Pelt actually shuddered when he saw Albus Dumbledore but he was here to do a job. Without any warning, he sent a curse at Dumbledore who conjured a flock of canaries to block the spell. Dumbledore shouted, "Get the students to safety." Then he whipped his wand up and started casting.

The death eaters had closed in from all sides upon them and were coming down on them. It was clear that soon they would all be trapped. Dumbledore was waving his wand like a baton producing walls, javelins, and lances to hurl at the death eaters and was not allowing them to close the circle.

Neville turned to Ron and Hermione, "get them out of here, guys. We've got this."

They defiantly stood their ground, "No, we will fight. The rest can retreat."

Neville growled, "You're both injured already. For the sake of Merlin. Please go."

Justin and Isobel had already started herding the students away while deflecting curses that came their way. He was securing an escape for the students when he took a hit and fell to the ground. Neville became extremely angry, "Why don't you both go? Do it."

Ron could see how angry Neville was and also felt the need to escort the students to safety. He dragged Hermione by her arm while he kept deflecting whatever curses came their way.

Some of the death eaters who recognised them got on their tail. They let loose a volley of curses towards the duo, but an earthen wall that had risen out of the ground, unlike being conjured, and it dissipated the spells. The earthen wall remained there, cutting the death eaters off from the retreating students.

They all turned to see the one who had snatched their prey and blood seemed to ebb from their faces. Harold Peverell was standing there with an unusual looking wand in his hand, his face red with anger and a grey aura ensconcing him like a cloak.

* * *

Harry had arrived with Susan near the cottage where Viktor Krum was living when they disapparated from Hestia's hearth. Viktor was in there with his wand and he looked like he was ready to charge in and fight the death eaters himself.

He saw Harry and approached him, "Harry Potter, tell me vot to do. How can I help?"

Harry turned to Susan and said in his most authoritative tone, "Sue, go with Viktor and secure the village and any students that you may find. Lead them to safety. I will go and find where they are fighting and try to neutralise them while we wait for the ministry forces to arrive."

She recognised the tone for what it was. It was the order that a commander gives to his underlings. He expected to be obeyed. Auntie had taught her that orders such as there were not meant to be defied but obeyed without asking a question because a life may depend upon it. Besides this was not the moment to stop and quibble with him about it. They needed to save the students.

Susan and Viktor had gone in one direction while Harry ran towards the centre of the village where he could hear the fighting was happening. In the way, a few death eaters tried to stop him but his training from running around the lake came in handy this time. He fired off curses at them while he ran and his curses found their marks. He had killed about 3 death eaters before he arrived in the middle of the fight. Harry had felt it when the wards had exploded. He also saw Black Storm coming in with a rider aboard. He frowned at first but then seemed to recognise that his familiar carried his god-brother on his back.

He saw Justin taking a hit and falling down and also saw Ron's attempts to save the students while dragging Hermione away who looked reluctant to leave. He saw the volley of curses and did what came to his mind first. The Nagas had taught him to will the earth to obey his commands. It was a power which took a lot out of a wizard so it was not advisable to try it too often and certainly not for something massive and humongous but the occasion was desperate. He screamed in parsel tongue while he stomped his foot and the earthen wall had risen to the challenge.

* * *

The Aurors started popping out of the floo and lining up in formation. About 30 Aurors had been sent. In a minute or so, they were all crammed into the little cottage. Moody was not one to stand around and as soon as the last man came through, he barked, "Forward men. Let's show them what we're made of!"

They ran out in formation with the General at the head alongside Moody, Sirius, Amelia and Alice. They realised that they hadn't flooed within the boundary of the wards and they would have to break them down. Before they could do it however, the wards shuddered and a moment later, they were destroyed. The sound of the blast reached their ears a few seconds later.

Moody roared, "CHARGE!" and the Aurors rushed in.

Remus and Dora had arrived just after the Aurors and they joined in with them. Teams went in different directions with one being sent to secure the students while one rushed to the centre of the battle and the last one was tasked with searching the village to route out any death eaters that were hiding in the village.

* * *

Wagner had felt reasonably sure that the wards would hold for sometime. He was not sure who broke them down. Someone had blown them apart with brute strength rather than dismantling them. The boy who had made such an entry had made him shudder for a second with the power that he was oozing. Dumbledore's appearance had terrified him. The old wizard was credited to have fought the longest magical duel ever to defeat Gellert Grindelwald himself. So he and his men were nothing more than pesky insects to him.

When the earthen wall had appeared to cut off his forces from the escaping students, he had been shocked. He had heard about such magic but never seen it. The wall stayed intact despite being hit with dozens of hexes and spells. The boy-who-lived made him wet his pants not that he was going to let that show. Meyer had taught him to be fearless. He had never feared anyone but the boy's appearance and the palpable anger radiating from him would have made the devil shudder.

He had decided to engage Dumbledore in a duel. With them being in such a public place, he knew Dumbledore could not use some of the more exotic spells against him for fear that it may hit someone innocent. True to his prediction, Dumbledore was using pretty pedestrian spells for him but they were sufficient to keep his men from doing any major damage. He knew they had the superiority of numbers only until the Aurors arrive and when they do arrive, the death eaters would be severely outnumbered and outclassed.

Harry saw Wagner engaged in a duel with Dumbledore and turned on the other death eaters. He and Neville exchanged some thoughts with a look between them and they charged them. Dumbledore was trying to disable Wagner so they could take him captive and interrogate him since he could see that he was a leader of sorts.

Harry and Neville had divided territory between them. While Neville liberally used his choice spells against the death eaters, Harry started the charge with the lightning bolts which seared a few of the death eaters before they decided that they might stand a chance if they attacked him together. Harry rushed into them while casting with his hand and wand. His movements were so fast and fluid that others could not make it out but death eaters were dying left and right. One fell missing most of his face; one fell with a spike through his heart, another fell missing most of the right side of his body. A few of them even perished from the curses that Harry dodged as he tore a swath through the middle of their ranks. By the time that Harry slowed down he had killed 5 more. It was then that he heard the heart rending cry, "Harry, SUSAN IS DOWN!"

* * *

Travers realized that they needed more men. He had run off to one side and had gathered twenty to follow him when they met the Aurors. The Aurors directly started attacking them and Sirius charged Travers himself bellowing, "Travers, you will pay for Marlene today."

Travers laughed maniacally, "I will kill you the way we killed her entire family. Come at me and die."

Remus appeared by that time at Sirius's side, "He is not the only one who wants to kill you."

Travers grinned and sent a curse at Remus who lazily produced a shield against it and dissipated it. He was about to cast when Sirius caught his hand, "He's mine, Moony. I'll kill him."

Moony nodded, "Don't let him die an easy death, Sirius."

Sirius started sending a spell chain of confrigno-bombarda-reducto at Travers who was forced to raise a shield. Sirius didn't relent for about 5 minutes. When Travers got his chance, he started sending an unending chain of bone-breakers at Sirius who was swatting them aside with such fluidity that it was a piece of art to see. When he was sure that Travers had become complacent, he raised a reflecting shield which deflected Traver's bone-breaker back at him. Travers had no time to dodge and he was hit in the wand-arm with the full impact of the spell. He roared in agony dropping his wand. Seeing his chance, Sirius fired another spell chain.

This chain consisted only of two spells- first a shield breaker and the second a family spell. It was the most lethal spell in Sirius's arsenal. It was a speciality of the Blacks. It would cause numerous burn wounds on the victim's body. The wounds would start to fester instantly. The one curse wouldn't die instantly but the wounds would keep festering for a day, burning the cursed one's body from within, eating at his flesh. At last when he was beyond hope, the husk of body that remained would crumble away. This spell wasn't known at the ministry so he was safe under the 'family magic' distinction. This curse had no counter either. Being hit with it was certain death.

Travers started convulsing as Sirius stood menacing over his limp body, "I have exacted the justice of men upon you. May you be judged for your crimes when you go to the after-life." Before he left Travers helplessly writhing on the ground, he destroyed his wand with a reducto.

He found that the Aurors had started moving towards the centre of the village. Frank and Alice were fighting as a team and killing whoever they could find. Alice would defend and Frank would attack. Remus was on the other side fighting with another death eater and Sirius was sure that the other death eater would not live for more than another 5 minutes.

Moody was well, Moody. His wand was cutting through the air with such speed that Sirius found it hard to follow. He would run in to the death eaters, sending bone-breakers at one, bone crushers at another. If a spell came his way, he would flick it aside with ease as if he were taking a walk in the garden.

He was about to go find someone else when he fancied he saw Susan in the distance. He saw her jumping in front of a spell which was meant for another girl who had her back turned on her attacker. With a horrible feeling and in morbid fascination, he watched as Susan was hit with the curse and she fell down, not moving. He heard the cry, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!" He ran in that direction. He knew hell was about to be loose.

* * *

Susan had met Bill, Fleur, Charlie and Arthur as the Order of the Phoenix came in. She had unleashed Viktor on the death eaters they met in the way. She spoke to Bill, "There are students trapped in the village. Try to extract them. Search every house and every shop. Herd them together, form a perimeter around them and defend them. The ministry forces are about to arrive and they will take on the death eaters. I believe the Order of the Snow Leopard is already in there."

Arthur tried to interrupt, "Susan, you need…"

She cut him off before he could finish, "These orders have come from Lord Black, Lord Weasley. As his betrothed, I am his representative and my words are his. Follow them."

Arthur knew there was no other way for him than to follow the orders. Also saving students was important today. They had pretty soon run into Daphne who was leading about 20 students in the effort to evacuate the wounded. They were fighting off a tail of 5 death eaters. It helped that the students she was escorting to safety were third years and had learnt well under Professor Rana. They couldn't duel as well as others but they had quick reflexes and they could cast some decent shields or selvio hexia. It was a skill worthy of a third year and Vikram rejoiced in teaching it to them. So while they at times deflected hexes coming at them, Daphne had been taking death eaters down when she could. She had killed at least 2 death eaters on the way. She had left Tracy and a few others of the Gryffindor Quidditch team in Madam Puddifoot's tea shop to guard a group of students and wounded who were barricaded in there.

She was so relieved when she saw Susan that she threw herself into Susan's arms. Susan was also relieved to see her safe. Hurriedly Daphne told her everything. By this time, one of the Auror teams led by Hestia Jones had found them. Hestia had divided her team and sent two of them with Charlie, Arthur and Podmore to Madam Puddiffoot's to guard the students and the wounded. She had sent four more of those under her command with Proudfoot to search the village on one side while she led the rest of the column to the other side. She had instructed Bill, Fleur and Viktor to scout the perimeter of the village. While this was happening, Susan and Daphne had slipped away towards the centre of the village where the fighting was going on. Judging by the booms and crashes which came to their ears, the fighting was heavy.

* * *

Dolohov had opened his mouth to shout his signature spell at the twins but one of them had immediately hit him with a silencing spell while the other had conjured a flock of canaries to block the spell. The violent end that the canaries met made them agree that they should not allow the death eater to cast one more spell.

They knew their advantage was in being together. He and Fred had once coerced Bill into teaching them a spell. Bill had taught them a spell which could dissolve the entire body of a man into a puddle of unrecognizable goo within seconds. As they had decided Fred fired first followed by George and they kept at it. In between they would even send in shield breakers, reducto or bombarda at the death eater who knew the best bet for him was to keep his shield up against whatever these menaces were sending at him. This was made difficult with the fact that they were casting at him relentlessly. They were taking turns to fire so he had not even a second to do anything. His companions were already fighting the Aurors who had arrived some time during the fight. He was being peppered with curses and he tried with all his might to retaliate but the twins were flawless in the execution of their strategy. He saw another of those curses coming at him and braced himself for the impact with his shield when it exploded in his hands. The other one had sent a shield breaker at him. As the shield was gone, Dolohov tried to duck but the curse grazed his left arm. Within a second, half of his left arm was dissolving into a puddle. He used a dark cutter to slice off what remained of his arm to prevent himself from dying. In all this, he forgot the twins. Seeing that their spell had worked, they sent a rain of bone breakers at him. As he was amputating his own arm, the bone breakers hit him all over his body and broke several of his bones. The twins walked over to him and said in unison, "This is for our uncles, Fabian and Gideon."

They cast a slicing hex at his throat to finish him off then left to join the main battle. They were joined by Ron and Hermione who had come out after committing the students to the care of the Aurors. The fight was still going on at the fringes of the village but mercifully the damage was minimal. They went to find the main event when they heard the cry, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"

* * *

Susan and Daphne were nearing where the majority of the death eaters were engaged with the Aurors and their allies when they were ambushed by four. They stood back to back and their wands spoke as one as they deflected spells and curses coming at them. Soon they were joined by Terry and Mandy who had been securing the students and now had come to the side of their friends. They had also sustained scratches and minor injuries and they looked pleased with themselves.

They each marked their opponents and started duelling with them. Their opponents were not worthy opponents and were no better than foot soldiers. While they had trained and trained and knew more than them, their having been trained by Harry, every green flash met a conjured or summoned object instead of finding its mark. Their opponents only seemed to know the Killing curse and they were using it.

Terry had conjured a flock of canaries to block the first curse from his opponent and then started sending spell chains at his opponent. He had sandwiched a shield breaker in between a bombarda and a reductor. It would have been a worthy strategy but he was still not able to flawlessly execute a spell chain so he had faltered after the shield breaker and his opponent had managed to raise a shield against the reductor. On his second attack however, he did not bother with a spell chain. He first sent a shield breaker followed immediately by a fire whip. He snared him with it and pulled. His opponent's head was rolling on the ground a moment later. He turned to find another opponent when he heard the scream, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"

Mandy had sent a tripping hex at her opponent who hadn't expected it and he fell victim to it. He fell flat on his face. Mandy lost no time in making short work of him with a bombarda to his head. She turned around to find another and heard the same words, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"

Daphne dodged her opponent for about a minute before she got her chance. She was not in the mood to prolong it. She conjured a javelin and banished it at her opponent who had no idea about such an application of transfiguration or charms. What he needed was a wooden shield to defend himself and not a shield charm so the javelin passed through his body and he keeled over. She heard a thud behind her and turning, she saw Susan's body falling to the ground. She didn't realise when she cried with so much pain in her voice that it would have rent others' hearts, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"

Susan had opened with a bombarda at her opponent. That being shielded she cast a family spell which was called "Dragon-fire." Dragon fire was a spell which could burn anything to the ground and no shield except a mage shield could block it. The opponent did not realise what the spell was. It tore through his shield and hit him in the face where it started burning him. She turned to find another and saw a death eater taking aim at Daphne whose back was turned. She knew she had no chance to hit him before his spell would hit Daphne in the back. She decided in the hundredth part of a second about what she had to do. As the spell left the death eater's wand, she forgot all the training Harry, Moody and Neville had drummed into her and jumped, using her own body to block the curse. It hit her in the chest and her limp body fell to the ground. The last words that she heard before losing consciousness were, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"

**REVIEWS AWAITED**


	17. Chapter 17

**Lament of a Mage**

As Harry heard the shriek, he turned to find Susan on the ground, not moving. Anger reared up into his eyes, his magic started projecting itself as pitch-black and something snapped in him. He bellowed out in rage, such a ferocious cry that all who heard it shivered to their bones.

The German mercenary who had shot the curse only had a brief moment to hear the wailing of the banshee before Harry gave him his undivided attention. He shuddered with the hostile magic which was being focused on him. Before he could say or do anything, Harry trained his wand on him, roaring, "KODAND!"

An arrow as black as the abyss, reeking of malevolence appeared at the end of his wand-tip. He banished it at the wizard. Not recognizing the spell, the mercenary both cast a Protego Maxima and dodged but the black arrow both tracked him and shattered his shield. The spell struck him in the centre of his chest, causing his body to disintegrate where he stood. In the next second, no trace of him remained.

Others were horrified with the magic that he had just cast but Harry was just getting started. He turned his wrath upon another who was trying to run. Levelling his wand, he roared, "TADITAM!" The spell contained all his fury and his wrath. As the blinding, blue bolt from his wand struck the death eater, there was a momentary image of the man's entire skeleton shining through his flesh before his body exploded in a flash of super-heated steam. The report from the thunderclap temporarily deafened everyone for more than a hundred yards.

These two attacks would have exhausted any ordinary wizard, but in his current condition, Harry didn't even feel it. The battle rage was on him. To Harry's perception, everyone else was moving in slow motion. Every single death eater and mercenary responsible for this cowardly attack today was going to die and that was that. Even Dumbledore, engaged as he was, saw Harry's movements become a blur as he surrounded himself in a penumbra of blackness that concealed him from normal senses. If any of the Mystics had been there to see it, they would have recognized this as The Dance of Death that even very few of them had ever mastered.

The Germans immediately rallied, signalling what was left of the death eaters to action. They left off fighting the Ministry Aurors and students to face the new threat. By the time they formed their skirmish line; five more of them already lay dead. Harry was conserving his strength, he had used fire-whips on two of them and spell-chains of shield-breaker, stunner, bombarda maxima on the other three. At least, that left bodies to identify, well, sort of.

By this time, the temporary deafness caused by Harry's thunderbolt had begun to ease. Some of the death eaters, seeing how things were going, attempted to run. Harry casually flicked bone-breakers at their backs and they collapsed to the ground, flailing helplessly as their legs refused to obey them anymore. Some of the death eaters threw down their wands and cast themselves at the feet of the Aurors, begging for protection.

All this time, the wizards in the skirmish line had been coordinating their attack while Harry had been subtly manoeuvring to make sure that none of his allies were behind him. They fired their wands in a volley of spell-chains that would have shredded any five competent wizards but as the spells passed through the empty space where Harry had been when the spells left their wands, he returned fire with spell-chains of his own, one from each hand. The wizards on both ends of the skirmish line flew backwards with most of the bones in their bodies shattered.

Most of the others had stopped fighting. They could see the carnage being dispensed by the teenage lord and were scared. A few more death eaters who knew they were the next to be slaughtered ran from the scene, the thoughts of the wards being broken forgotten. Harry however was not in the mood to let them flee. Summoning his magic, he contemptuously turned his back on the skirmish line and chased down the deserting death eaters with a blur of speed while his wand cast spells and curses. One of his curses took the head off of a death eater, another was cut in half and the third one had run into a group of Aurors to save himself. All this time, in spite of his rage and speed, every spell was placed with pin-point accuracy, finding its mark. To those observing, it looked like he had lost all control, casting wildly regardless of whether innocent people were in the arc of fire. He wasn't even speaking, he was hissing and spitting as he cast, like a snake. Any death eater who was unfortunate enough to find himself in front of his wand didn't live another moment. This act of destruction scared even the battle hardened Aurors. This was clearly not the teenage Lord that they all adored. This was some primal being. The war mage was showing why he was a cut above everyone else in battle.

Wagner who had been fighting Dumbledore suddenly realised that the old Headmaster had started casting at a different level altogether. His wand was now a blur, the spells came so fast that it was impossible for him to dodge them or shield from them. What's more was that the headmaster was now sending animations at him. It all became difficult for him to defend against. Once or twice he even had to swat aside some borderline dark spells which would have killed him. Knowing there was just one way for him to save his skin today, he cast the smokescreen which temporarily blinded Dumbledore, and fired red sparks into the air and then disapparated. The red sparks were the signal to beat a hasty retreat. Here and there, throughout the village, the few remaining mercenaries and death eaters who still could, disapparated.

Neville's blood boiled when he heard the scream. He started casting his favourite family spell with all his power behind it. The Longbottom family curse which blasted through shields and killed without fail. It looked like there were three gods of war on the battle field and no one could stop them.

Harry had turned his attention back to the line of death eaters who had not broken formation or retreated. He was methodically annihilating them when Alice and Sirius rushed forward towards him. They understood what they had to do. If they didn't stop Harry there was no knowing to what extent he would go. Moony and Dora engaged what was left of the death eaters so that Sirius and Alice would have time to control the teen. Harry was in the process of casting another deadly spell when Sirius stepped in front of his wand.

Harry roared, "Step aside Padfoot! I will not leave a single one of these scum alive!"

Sirius was not deterred, "It's not about them, pup. You are what matters to me. I can't let you go beyond the point of no return. For the sake of the love that I have for you, please holster your wand."

Before Harry could respond, Alice caught his wand hand and said in a soothing tone, "You are not a murderer, son. Put away your wand."

Harry still held his wand tightly and was not ready to let go. His eyes were flashing dangerously and his magic was still surrounding him with a dark black aura. She hugged him to pacify him. After a few moments of stiffness, Harry finally slumped onto her shoulder. She gently pried his wand from his fingers and gently told him, "Go and see her, son. May be there is still hope."

While Alice and Sirius were talking Harry down, the few remaining death eaters that were still able made their escape. A handful of loud pops announced their disapparation.

Harry dashed to Susan's side. Daphne was tending to her fallen friend with Ron and Hermione standing over them. He took Susan from Daphne's charge to pick her up gently and embrace her. He stroked her cheek fondly and whispered, "Sue... Sue, get up... Sue... get... look the death eaters have fled. Sue come on, get up. Sue."

Hermione gently placed her hand on his shoulder, her voice choked with emotion, "Har. Harry. She... she is d..." She could not even bring herself to say it.

Harry was now shaking Susan fiercely as if she would sit up suddenly and tell him that she was faking. However Susan didn't wake up. Harry started shouting at the top of his voice, "Sue... Get up... SUE GET UP!"

He started wailing while pounding his chest fiercely and would only say, "Sue Get up." The dam had already broken and he cried unashamedly, tears streaked his face, hiccups marred his breathing and he sounded like a broken man who had just lost everything at the game of dice.

Dumbledore knew what had happened when he heard the shriek but he did not let it distract him while he duelled with the German. Now that his opponent had disapparated, he was equally worried. He advanced quickly towards Harry and Susan then tried to pry him away, "My boy, let me see."

Harry refused, "No, I won't let go of her."

Dumbledore still advanced and tried to interfere, "Harry please let me see."

Harry lashed out with his wandless magic shoving Dumbledore with such force that he was thrown about 10 feet back. Only Dumbledore noticed this use of wandless magic. He was part surprised and part scared with the amount of control Harry had over it.

Sirius, seeing that the situation was desperate, tried to reason with him, "Son, please let us see if we can do something."

Harry refused to let go, "No, I won't let her go. No. Never."

They realised that he wouldn't step aside and that they would have to use force on him. Nobody was willing. Reluctantly, Neville levelled his wand and him and firmly intoned, "Stupefy."

Harry keeled over while Neville looked at the others as if daring them to defy him. No one tried to do so. He had done what had to be done but none of them could bring themselves to do it. Sirius gave him a curt nod before conjuring a stretcher to levitate Harry onto it.

Dumbledore knelt over Susan's body and did some detection spells. Whatever the results were, he seemed slightly pleased. When he spoke, it was with a sense of urgency, "Have her taken to the Hospital Wing. She is alive but barely. There is still a chance that we can save her."

Moody was barking orders to Proudfoot with uncharacteristic stoniness "collect our wounded, bring them in. Those who are very serious should be sent to St. Mungo's immediately. Somebody gather the students and also the bo... bodies. Make a list of the casualties and report to me at the ministry this evening."

Amelia was in shock but true to her office she was doing her duty while Frank talked with the surviving Aurors to know what had really happened. Neville was with Alice and cried into her shoulder while she consoled her son. Ron and Hermione were with Sirius and Remus. They were watching over Harry who was on the stretcher and tied with a jinx. For good measure, Sirius hit him with a deep sleep charm so he wouldn't suddenly wake up.

By then healers and trainee healers had started apparating in with the support staff and started to work on the wounded. Most of them were to be taken to St. Mungo's while the students who were not seriously wounded were administered first aid on the spot and then asked to see Madam Pomfrey who would deal with their injuries. A few grievously injured students were also sent to the castle since St. Mungo's was already over-crowded and they were running out of help.

The General and others walked with the students to the school, their heads lowered and their expression solemn with the Aurors and the members of the Order of the Phoenix following them. Viktor and Fleur had been asked by Dumbledore to join them with the Weasleys and the other members of the Order of the Phoenix. It was sort of a procession for those who died today and for those who fought today to save others. Correct numbers weren't yet known but it was believed that about 15 students had died while 20 or so had been injured, mostly among the members of the Order of the Snow Leopard.

The bodies of the dead were taken to St. Mungo's from where the parents of the students could claim them. Dumbledore also knew that it was only a matter of time before parents would be coming to the castle asking for answers and to see if their children were harmed. He knew that he would have to face them. There was nothing for it.

After Dumbledore had examined Susan, she had been sent to Hogwarts. No one yet knew if she was alive or dead. Hestia and Emmeline had taken charge of her and apparated to the gates. From there, Hagrid carried Susan to the infirmary in record time, carrying Susan as if she weighed nothing more than a rag doll to him.

The healers of the Order of the Snow Leopard who had been learning some basic healing were in the Hospital Wing with Madam Pomfrey. As soon as they heard about the attack, they quickly went in and reported for duty. Dumbledore had made some portkeys on the spot to let the healers get there in the quickest time possible and as many as possible could be saved. When the injured started coming in, those with superficial wounds or minor injuries were sent to the Great Hall where the students had set up camp and were tending to the injured ones.

Ron and Hermione had defiantly asked to return to the castle with the students and the ministry entourage. They were asked to be carried on stretchers because their injuries appeared to be many but Ron couldn't stand the thought of spending a night in the infirmary. Harry was being carried on a stretcher by Neville, Sirius or Remus who were taking turns at carrying him.

A team of Aurors stayed back to find what had happened and to record statements of the residents of the village. It was then that the muggleborns also arrived at the village under the leadership of Mr. O'Neil. It had taken him sometime to get help and he arrived as soon as he could. The 20 or so wizards who were with him presented themselves to the Aurors to ask how they could assist them while he and a few others made their way to the school to meet the minister and to offer their support anyway they could.

When the procession reached Hogwarts, students started moving toward the Great Hall with everyone else while Harry was taken to the Hospital Wing and his friends followed suit with Sirius, Remus, Amelia and Alice. The students had come out of the castle and they were standing on both sides of the procession as sort of honour guard as they entered.

Dumbledore led the entourage into the Great Hall. After having most of them comfortably seated, he left for the hospital wing with Neville and Frank at his side. Neville looked grim and very determined and didn't leave the headmaster's side for a moment. He had noticed Colin and others with him when they entered and asked Colin to order others to return to the Great Hall where it was expected that the students would soon be ordered to gather so the headmaster could address them.

When they reached the Hospital Wing, Hannah tackled Neville with such force that he landed on his rump. Hannah's eyes were blotchy. She looked like she had been crying. He wiped her tears with his thumbs and gently patted her on her back, "Han, it's alright."

Hannah wailed, "Nothing is alright, Neville. Su. Susan is de. dead."

Dumbledore was talking to Poppy Pomfrey, "What is the diagnosis, Poppy?"

She said grimly, "She is alive, Albus but barely. And that is only because someone cast a stasis charm on her before sending her here. Even so, whatever she was hit with is eating at her magical core, depleting her life force. I haven't seen anything like this before. I fear that if we can't figure out what to do, she will be dead in a few minutes."

Dumbledore frowned, "But there must be something that you can do."

She morosely refused, "No. There is nothing that I know of."

While Dumbledore thought about what to do, one of the healers was talking to Frank, "General, we don't have enough healers here."

He barked, "Then get some from the Hospital."

The healer shook her head, "They are already far to over-burdened to spare any. We will have to figure out something else and do that quickly."

Just then Albus could feel the war wards being bypassed and he stiffened. He was curious and worried about it. About a minute later, a retinue of 5 healers with a man at the head of them entered the hospital wing to find about 10 wands trained on them. The leader of that little retinue actually chuckled, "Albus, my boy. So far I am not disappointed. This is more than I expected when I entered the castle."

Dumbledore by now recognised Harsh and advanced towards him, "Lord Harsh, we are in trouble here."

Harsh grimly nodded, "I know Albus. I have brought some healers to render assistance to you and the ministry. These healers will take over the treatment of the students and later if your General is willing, they will render their services in St. Mungo's."

Albus said agitatedly, "Actually our problem is far bigger. Susan was hit with an unknown curse. It is eating away at her magical core. We don't know how to stop it."

Harsh looked around the hospital wing and asked, "Where is Miss Bones?"

Albus led him around the partition beyond which was Susan. She laid inert, her body pale as if all blood was lost, the shadow of death already over her face. Harsh proceeded to cast some diagnostic charms. After he was done studying the results, he cursed loudly in a language that Albus did not understand before adopting his calm demeanour again and turned to Albus, "We can save her but I will need Harry's help. Where is he?"

Albus sheepishly pointed out the bed with Harry's name plaque on it. There the young war-mage lay, in a deep sleep, bound with restraints both physical and magical.

Harsh frowned, "Why is he being tied?"

Sirius explained, "He went berserk when Susan fell. He was indiscriminately killing wizards right and left. We had to stun him to stop him from causing harm to innocent bystanders."

Harsh knew that he wasn't getting the whole story. It was highly doubtful that Harry would ever allow one of his spells to hit an innocent. But there was no time to get the story straight if they were to save Susan. He nodded then turned to his healers asking them to take care of the students. The healers with the discipline that came to them from being associated with the Mystics started tending to the students while members of the Order of the Snow Leopard assisted them with Poppy Pomfrey diligently following their orders. She knew what Harsh was capable of. If the healers he brought had even half his talent, they all would learn a thing or two from them.

Harsh proceeded to Harry's bed and vanished the ropes that bound him. With another flick of his wand, he dispelled the restraining charms. He produced a potion from the inner pocket of his robes and poured it down Harry's throat. Pointing his wand at Harry, he started chanting. After 5 minutes, he enervated Harry. While all this was going on, one of his healers diagnosed and started to draw out the curse that had afflicted Susan.

As soon as Harry woke, he was out of his bed ready to lunge at whoever stood in his way to get to Susan. Harsh however held him by his shoulder and said sternly, "Stand down, Harry. I command you."

These words felt like drops of water on a hot frying pan which sizzles at first but then cools down. Harry realized that Harsh stood before him. He immediately sank to his knees and fell at his feet, "Pranam Guruji".

Harsh placed his hands on Harry's head and murmured, "Vijay Bhav, vatsa".

Then he raised Harry by the shoulders and Harry looked more at peace with himself than before. He asked him, "Guruji, what brings you here?"

Harsh smiled serenely, "Varah Mihir told me to come."

Harry became agitated, "Save Susan? Can you? I mean, I thought she was…"

Vikram took his hand and guided him to where Susan was lying on a bed with a partition blocking the view from the rest of the hospital wing. He turned to the healer who was murmuring a chant over her. They exchanged a few glances, after which Harsh's face became grim.

Harry was alarmed. He asked him, "Guruji, what happened?"

Harsh made an effort to smile, "Harry, she will be fine. She was hit with a nasty curse which can be quite fatal."

Amelia who had just come behind the partition asked him, "Will she live?"

Harsh nodded, "We can counter the curse and she will be fine."

Amelia was an Auror who was trained to see when people were lying or keeping back some information. She observed the looks exchanged and decided to confront him later.

Harsh spoke to Harry, "We are going to cast the counter curse for her. Then you will have to call her back. She is very close to departing for the next great adventure. You must give her a reason to come back. What you have to do is hold her hand and try to talk to her in your mind. Can you do that?"

Harry nodded determinedly, "I will do it."

Together Harsh and the healer pulled out their wands and started murmuring an incantation under their breath. Others had come to see what was happening. Harry held her hand in both of his. He tried to talk to her in his mind. At first, he felt idiotic. This however was the only way to bring her back so he tried with more energy. It went something like this-

"Su... Sue, you know I love you, right? I mean yes I just proposed to you this morning but the thing is that I have been feeling that way for a long time. You know I have loved you since I learnt that you like me. Remember that morning when Luna came to us and said that you like me. You have been in my thoughts since then and I realise that no one ever has loved me the way you do. I have had this dream where we are one happy family, you know. We were there in Potter Manor and surrounded by scores of children. You don't have a problem with that, do you? I want a big family because I had none. Being an only child would also make it boring. I. I had even thought about their names. I thought that if we had two sons we would name the first one after your father and mine - James Edgar Potter or Bones. The second one will be named after Sirius and we will think about the middle name later. I also thought that we will have a girl who would look like you and we will name her Ellie Lilly and..."

His musing was interrupted by a hoarse voice, "Did you even think about our marriage or go straight about having children?"

He snapped his eyes open and saw that Susan's eyes were half open and her lips were stretched in a small smile. Her face however still looked pale and it looked like she was in pain. Then it registered on him that she was awake and letting out a shout of joy, he engulfed her in a tight hug.

"Gently son, she is still frail", said Sirius who had been worriedly looking at what was transpiring but now was smiling though his eyes looked moist.

Harry let her go and a scene flashed in his mind. A vision which he had months ago and now it was coming to fulfilment.

He turned to Harsh, "Guruji, is she going to be alright?"

Harsh nodded, "Yes Harry. She will feel weakness, dizziness for about a week but eventually with a regimen of potions and the care of Sushrut, she will be right as rain. Now let us leave her to recuperate and give others a chance to greet her."

When they exited the partition, others went in but Harry stopped Neville, "I want to talk to you about something."

Neville nervously asked, "What is it?"

Harry scowled as he placed his forefinger in the centre of Neville's chest, "you stunned me in Hogsmeade."

Neville defiantly said, "Yes I did. You were being a prat when what we needed was to get her here."

Harsh intervened, "Harry we have a lot to talk about. Please harass Neville later. He did the right thing in stunning you. Who knows what you would have done when you went berserk."

That was when Dumbledore approached him, "Lord Harsh."

Harsh interrupted him, "Call me Harsh, my boy."

"Right, I wanted to talk to you. Will you stay and be pleased to grant me an audience in my office in the presence of a few more people? Right now, I have to go and talk with the parents who are at the castle gates and tell them about their children."

Harsh nodded, "I will Albus."

With that Harsh took him away saying that it would be a good idea for Harry not to be in the Hospital wing when the parents came in. Three of his healers were already on their way to St. Mungo's where they were urgently needed.

On their way in search of a quiet room, they came across Daphne who was going to the Hospital with Tracy and Astoria. As she saw him, she lunged for him and tackled him in a hug, "Oh Harry. Thank Merlin you are okay. I was so scared."

Harry gently extricated himself and introduced them to Harsh, "Lord Harsh Vardhan, this is Daphne Greengrass, Heiress apparent of House Greengrass, Tracy Davis heiress of House Davis and Astoria Greengrass, daughter of House Greengrass. Everyone this is Lord Harsh Vardhan, a man who has helped me in some very tight spots."

They were puzzled at such a singular introduction but Daphne had questions to ask, "Harry is Su. Susan okay? She jumped in the way of the curse meant for me. I. It would have been me in h. her place. I tried to treat her, but all I could do was cast a stasis spell and hope that a real healer could do more for her."

Harsh said to her gently, "Heiress Greengrass, I am sorry that curse was quite beyond your skill but your quick thinking likely saved her life. Also you should never mourn for people who do brave deeds. Beside heiress Bones is fine and recuperating in the hospital wing. Go up and see her for yourself."

As Daphne accompanied by others strolled towards the Hospital wing, Harsh was inwardly murmuring to himself, "and so Miss Bones has changed the fate."

As soon as Daphne and Tracy disappeared around the corner with Astoria, Harsh turned to him, "Is there some place we can talk without letting others know?"

Harry caught his hand and they both disappeared. They reappeared in the Chamber of Secrets where Harsh's eyes spread in wonder at the sight, "Impressive. I must say that you have been busy, Harry."

Harry nodded, "I have been but why are you here? I mean what prompted you?"

Harsh's expression turned sombre, "A few months ago, Varah Mihir reached out to me in Africa and told me that I would need to be here at Hogwarts in the evening of 14th of February. Since he didn't give any detail on it, I didn't insist. I merely followed. There was another thing that I had to do."

"What?"

Harsh pointed to his wrist, "the thread which I had tied to your wrist. The time has come that I untie it and ask of you what I want."

Harry apprehensively nodded, "What do you require, Guruji?"

"Harry a time may come when you will have to make a choice. The time may be today or it can be years from now. When it comes your magic will tell you. At that time, you may feel that the world is ending for you, you would feel hopeless but I want you to promise me that you will not do anything in your power to stop the events. You will not try to alter the fates. If you did, Mother Magic will not look kindly upon you for it. Do you promise?"

Harry felt apprehensive in promising anything to him. He shuddered slightly to think what it could be that would make him try to tamper with the fates. He was reluctant to promise it but he knew the importance of the occasion. Untying the thread would free him of his obligation towards Harsh which was the logical thing to do. He would just have to man up and shoulder whatever may come.

He turned to Harsh and said authoritatively, "With mother magic as our witness, I Harold James Potter-Peverell-Rosier-Weber-Black solemnly swear to fulfil the promise asked of me by Lord Harsh Vardhan. If I falter in my duty, may mother magic punish me with all her might. So I say, so mote it be."

Harsh untied the thread from his wrist while muttering an incantation under his breath and when he was done, a golden glow emanated from the thread as it dissolved into their bodies.

This being done, Harsh turned to him, "Now that we are done here may be you would like to return to Miss Bones, Harry. However please remember that she needs her rest and should sleep as much as possible."

Harry nodded and they both left the chamber.

**Headmaster's office**

Dumbledore had a hard time trying to talk to the parents of his students about how their children were either dead or injured. His heart broke with every stroke that fell with a word of his. They had brought the parents into the Great Hall where Frank himself talked to them, praised their children's valour and offered his deepest condolences. Albus could see that Frank was hit with true remorse for what had happened and the parents realised it too.

They would accept his condolences while trying to put up a brave front. He promised to each one of them that the ministry would not rest until it had exterminated all the death eaters. With this cowardly attack, they had closed all doors that might have led to any kind of clemency they might have found. From this moment, every death eater was going to be executed. The Aurors now would duel to kill than try to take hostage. If they had been pulling any punches before, it was not going to happen anymore. They had let Voldemort and his ilk terrorise them long enough.

Frank was also a father of a young boy so the parents knew he could understand what they were going through and that he would remain true to his word. Thinking ahead about the swarm of parents they would have, he had allowed the students to place floo calls to their homes from the floo in the Great Hall where many fireplaces had been set up. Most of the students who weren't in the Village or were unharmed were able to pacify their parents that they were safe however those who had been injured in the battle were having shouting matches with their parents about not leaving the school.

Young Seamus Finnigan who had been hurt with a gash in his arm which looked ugly was fervently rejecting his mother's orders to return. It even went as far as her threatening to disown him from his heritage. Seamus contemptuously replied that he would shift in with his friend, Heir Sayre formerly known as Dean Thomas and would act as his squire rather than give in to her protests.

Fay Dunbar's mother wanted her to return home promptly but Fay reminded her that she had sworn allegiance to Harold Peverell and she was not about to desert him at this crucial point of time. Her mother had pleaded with her but Fay told her that her father would have wanted her to stay and fight what lies ahead. Reginald Dunbar was nothing if not honourable.

There were similar stories around however there were a few who were pleased with their wards. Augusta Longbottom had come to the castle and she held her head high. She carried herself with such majestic air that it was hard to miss that she was indeed busting with pride for her grandson.

He had been apprehensive when Molly arrived. She barged in the Great Hall and Arthur tried to stop her. She shook him off for once growling, "let me see my children, Arthur."

Arthur caught her in a hug, "Mollywobbles, our children are mostly fine. Just some superficial scratches and nothing more. See they are being tidied up right now."

Indeed at that moment, Hermione and Ron were being tended to by the healers for their injuries. Mercifully they had cured them of their ailments before Molly could see. Hermione had a cut on her arm which had been closed and there was not even a scar from that. Other than that, her eye-brows were singed and had been regrown. Her best robes were in tatters but other than that she was unharmed.

There was a zig-zag scar on Ron's arm which ran from his wrist to the elbow on the inside and it looked red and angry. The healer was talking to him, "Do you want me to give you something for that scar?"

Ron attempted some humour, "You have got to be kidding. My best mate has a scar and people revere him. There is nothing wrong with having a scar."

Hermione smacked him on the head, glaring at him and saying, "Don't talk like an idiot, Ron."

Before he could respond, Molly caught both of them in a vice like hug, "Oh Hermione, Ronald. I'm so glad that you are both alright."

Ron whined, "Mom... can't breathe. You're crushing us."

She released them and looked them over. She frowned when she spotted the scar on his arm and Ron told her that he liked it. It would serve him as a reminder of the day when he stood up for the weak in the face of insurmountable odds.

It was then that she noticed that the twins weren't there. Ginny hadn't been to the village because she and Colin had some idea about the Room of Requirement but none of their ideas came to fruition.

Molly turned to Arthur, "Arthur, where are the twins?"

Arthur fretted, "Molly…"

She snapped, "Don't Molly me. Where are my boys?"

Bill caught her in a hug, "Mom, they're fine. They're up in the Gryffindor Common Room. They're still in shock."

She screamed, "Shock? From what? What has happened?"

At this point Albus approached them, "They met Antonin Dolohov on the field of battle and they took him down for their uncles. I guess when the adrenaline rush wore off, they were shocked. I have asked Poppy to see to every student if they are in shock or anything else wrong."

Molly then realised that Harry also wasn't there. She turned to her husband again, "Arthur, where is Harry?"

Albus answered her, "He is in the hospital wing."

Molly shrieked, "What happened? Is he hurt?"

Without letting anyone answer, she marched up to the hospital wing. When she looked around in the infirmary, she could not see Harry anywhere. In fact she spotted the bed with his name on it empty. She shuddered with the thought of Harry being d... No, she couldn't bring herself to think about it.

She asked a healer nearby, "Where is Harry? What happened to him?"

Before the healer could answer Amelia accosted her, "Molly, Harry is fine. He has just left."

Molly could see that Amelia had been crying, "What happened? Is Susan..."

She left the question hanging and Amelia shook her head, "She is recovering. She was hit in the battle but the healers have countered the curse." She pointed towards the partition, "She is behind there."

Molly immediately proceeded towards the partition and entered the partition to see Hannah hugging her best friend. As Susan saw her, she gave a very watery smile, "Hello, Mrs. Weasley."

Molly hugged her lightly and fondly asked, "How are you Susan?"

"I am feeling sore everywhere. But the healers say that in a few days, I'll be right as rain."

**Hospital Wing**

The hospital wing bustled with activity, looking like the King's Cross station. Thanks to the talents of the healers who came with Harsh, lives of many students had been saved. Dumbledore had sent word that parents will be arriving soon to inquire after the health of their wards.

When Harry entered the hospital wing, he wanted to run to Susan first but he knew he had to thank every student who had stood their ground for him.

The first student was Rupert McNaughton whose head was covered in bandages and his left arm in a sling. When he saw Harry, he grinned, "So what do you say?"

Harry tried to grin back, "I'm pleasantly surprised Rupert. You held your ground quite well. Thank you for doing what was right."

Rupert waved him off, "I didn't do it for anyone but Gwendolyn who was there with me."

On the bed next to his was Gwendolyn, the right side of her face covered with a layer of poultices. Harry asked her worriedly, "What happened?"

She grumbled, "One of them was poking Rupert with his wand and Rupert was not ready to back down. When we got Hermione's message, I blasted the death eater in the face with a bombarda but one of his spells nicked my face. Madam Pomfrey was able to set me right though. We will be fine in a few days."

The bed beside her was occupied by Elsa Kuruvilla who looked forlorn and distant. Harry had to call her name a few times before she heard him, "Elsa that was the third time I called you. What happened?"

She said sorrowfully, "Marietta Edgecombe died right in front of me and I could do nothing. We were a group of 4 girls who were fighting a group of 7 death eaters while trying to save some students. Marietta Edgecombe, Cho Chang and Rupali from Hufflepuff were fighting them with me, fending off their attacks. Rupali was taken out early having fallen to a Killing Curse. It was as you had said in training. She freaked out when she saw the real thing. She could not move or do anything. We were seized with terror and our wits abandoned us in that moment. After Rupali was down, we started fighting with more fervour determined not to let them get the best of us. We were told to get the children to the ward line from where they could run away. As Rupali fell, I kept driving the students to the ward line while Cho and Marietta stayed back to fight the horde. Cho was great but she fell to a dark curse and then Marietta decided that getting the students away before she died too was important so she joined me. We killed 4 of them Harry but the three who were left banded together. The students were helping when they could but it was not enough. Finally Marietta pushed me out of the way of another killing curse and it killed her instead. I tried to avenge her and killed one more but took a cutter to my abdomen and would have died. Miraculously an Auror had arrived by then and took over ordering me to run with the students. I tried the best I could but passed out from excessive blood loss. When I woke up, I was here."

When Harry spoke it sounded like he had a head cold, "I am honoured to have known four such fierce warriors as you and your friends are. I feel pride for the valour shown by you and others for us. Thank you." It was then he realised he didn't know what became of Cho, "Elsa where is Cho?"

She replied, "I asked when I came around to see if she had survived. I am told that she was critical and was taken to St. Mungo's."

The bed next to Elsa was occupied by Conrad. The Slytherin had one of his arms in a sling covered with a cast, his chest covered with bandages and one of his legs in a cast. When he saw Harry, he grinned.

Harry exclaimed, "Merlin, what happened to you Conrad?"

Conrad was still grinning, "I was evacuating students when I found the death eaters fighting Elsa and some others. When Elsa was the last and trying to get away, I engaged a death eater in a duel. He got under my shield with a dirty trick and my off hand was broken with a bone breaker but in retaliation I took his head. I was carrying Elsa to safety when another one of those cowards crept up on me and got to my leg with another bone-breaker. A nasty injury and pains like hell but I am not complaining. I was able to save Elsa."

Harry pressed his uninjured hand warmly, "You did great, Conrad. We are all proud of you. Do you happen to know who else was injured or died in Slytherin?"

He nodded, "A few Slytherins died as well. They were trying to save the students."

Harry's eyes were tearing up, "I can never express my gratitude enough for this."

Conrad said to him sombrely, "We didn't do it for you, Harry. This is as much our war as it is yours. We love our freedom so we would have fought the maniac anyhow."

The other students were either being treated or were given sleep potions so Harry decided not to bother them and go visit Susan. Before he could, Pomfrey stopped him, "Harry, the headmaster wants to see you and Neville in his office."

**War briefing**

When Harry and Neville reported to the Headmaster's office, a lot of people were already there. There was the General, the head of Aurors, Amelia Bones, Alice Longbottom, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin (Harry didn't know why he was there) and Percy Weasley who had a notepad open before him with a quill hovering over it.

Dumbledore pointed them to two seats, "Please sit. There are questions that need to be answered."

When they made themselves comfortable, Frank started speaking, "Since neither of you were in the village when the attack started, it would be useful to give you a brief background. The attack was led by one of the German mercenaries who goes by the name of Emmett Wagner. They brought death eaters into the village. When they had deployed the length of the main street in the village, they started sending teams into homes and shops to take the students captive. One such team was in the three Broomsticks where they were killed by some students who acted in unison with a message which was sent to them by Miss Granger. She and Mr. Ronald Weasley led the resistance and assisted the Aurors in fighting. Miss Granger was also sending messages to some students, who belong to a non-descript order and they all rallied to battle. A few members of this Order died but they prevented major damage until you both came in. Now there are some questions which need to be answered."

They nodded and Frank continued, "The first question is who destroyed the wards?"

Neville raised his hand, "That would be me."

Frank asked him speculatively, "And how did you do that?"

"My great Uncle Algernon Kroaker taught me a spell of his own invention. With enough force behind it, he believes it will destroy any ward."

Frank turned to Harry, "You were reported to be out of the village when the attack happened. How did you circumvent the wards?"

"That would be my doing, General. I have taught him the art of getting through any wards", said Harsh who was sitting in a dark corner where Harry had not yet spotted him.

It was Moody's turn to ask now, "How many students have you trained?"

Harry shook his head, "Sorry, Master Auror. That is confidential."

Frank nodded, "Moving on, what you have taught them?"

Harry said elusively, "Everything from dodging to casting."

Frank nodded, "You should know Harry that 20 students, 5 Aurors and five residents of the village were killed today. 4 Aurors and 20 students were grievously injured and are in St. Mungo's or the hospital wing. On their side, they lost 60 men, 5 were caught alive and many made their escape."

The briefing was over with that. Since they hadn't been in the fight from the start, they didn't know everything that had transpired.

Before they could leave, however, Albus stopped them, "The press is in the Great Hall and it is about dinner time. Come with us."

They didn't want to go to dinner but there was no polite way to refuse.


	18. Chapter 18

**Great Hall**

The press was waiting as Harry and Neville entered. The reporters tried to swarm the duo, having heard rumours that they had turned the tide of the battle but Moody had prepared for this occurrence. A group of 10 Aurors kept the reporters at bay while Harry and Neville joined their friends at the Gryffindor table.

"Alright", growled Alastor Moody, "If yer want to attend this press conference, you'll have to behave like sensible wizards and witches or my Aurors will take you into custody for causing a nuisance. This has been a hard day for us and we would appreciate some order."

Knowing that Alastor Moody would not hesitate to do exactly as he had promised, they immediately settled down and took their seats at the table in the centre of the Great Hall which had been set up for them. After the disturbance from the members of the press quieted down, Frank stood and all conversation stopped, "This evening, a contingent of death eaters, under command of some foreign wizards who have joined them, attacked Hogsmead. Since it was a weekend, the students were out in great numbers and the death eaters attempted to take them hostage. It is assumed that they intended to keep the children hostage and force the ministry to do their bidding. There has also been some speculations that their intention was to hurt us by killing as many of our children as they could.

What they did not count upon was the students resisting them and fighting back. Under the leadership of some unnamed students, the students fought back, saving a lot of lives. Tragically, many gave their lives defending their fellow students. They kept the death eaters at bay until help arrived. Their bravery and sacrifice was not in vain. The defence they mounted was timely, well-coordinated and effective.

We have been informed that Heir Longbottom and Lord Peverell assisted the students in evacuating the non-combatants while fighting with the death eaters. At length, the death eaters were defeated and a few of them were able to run away. We will take your questions now."

One of them stood up, "For the Daily Bugle from France, what will the ministry do now, General?"

"The ministry has ordered the Aurors to use lethal force. They are fully authorized to kill any death eaters who are participating in a raid, battle or ambush."

Another stood up, "For the Teen Witch Weekly, General. It has come to our knowledge that the defenders used lethal force against the death eaters and even killed them. What is the ministry planning to do about that?"

Frank's visage turned grim, "Your sources are wrong. None of the students deliberately caused any death or used any dark spell. Every such action of theirs was in self-defence. Any allegation of murder regarding them is wrong and baseless with the only exception of Lord Peverell. However he was issued a Hit Wizard license when Voldemort stepped out into the open in consideration of the threat posed to him by the death eaters and Voldemort himself. The same consideration has been extended to a few more civilians considering the help that they render to the ministry and their precarious position."

Another stood up, "The Magical Statesmen, General. What do you have to say about the members of the infamous Order of the Snow Leopard? There is no information about them."

"First, let me assure you that the actions of that order have been 100% in the public interest. Their actions are monitored by select members of my senior staff to ensure that this continues to be the case. Their identities are a war secret, classified under the Official Secrets Act."

"For the Daily Prophet, General. It is speculated that the members of this Order are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"

"Speculate away. The ministry does not confirm or deny the speculations."

With that, the General's briefing was over. As the members of the press began to talk among themselves, Harry stood at his place with his voice magically magnified, "General with your leave, I wish to address the press."

The General nodded and Harry walked up to the staff table, "If you all would, please take a message for me."

When they all appeared eager to hear whatever the boy-who-lived had to say, he started speaking, "TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE. YOU AND YOUR FOLLOWERS HAVE PLAGUED US LONG ENOUGH. I WILL NO LONGER STAND BY WHILE YOU TORTURE, MURDER AND PLUNDER THE INNOCENT WHO WILL NOT BOW TO YOUR WILL OR FURTHER YOUR AMBITIONS. FROM THIS MOMENT, I LORD HAROLD JAMES PEVERELL-POTTER-BLACK-ROSIER-WEBER DECLARE A BLOOD WAR ON YOU AND YOUR FOLLOWERS. YOU, YOUR DEATH EATERS, ANYONE WHO TAKES YOUR MARK AND ANYONE WHO ENTERS INTO YOUR SERVICE IS MY SWORN ENEMY FROM THIS MOMENT. I WILL SHOW NO MERCY. I WILL GIVE NO QUARTER. I WILL NOT REST UNTIL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU HAS BEEN PUT DOWN AS THE VENOMOUS VERMIN THAT YOU ARE. SO I SAY SO MOTE IT BE."

A surge of power jumped from Harry to every student who was a vassal of any of his houses. At some level, they all understood that they were just as bound by this oath as Harry.

Pandemonium broke out in the Great Hall with his declaration. There had been a number of blood feuds over the centuries and they were common and destructive enough, but limited in scope. A formal apology and reasonable terms could end one of those quickly. But there hadn't been a blood war since the era of the Romans. What's more was that Harry had not allowed for any terms of settlement or surrender. Only total destruction of one or both sides would end this war and Harry had magically bound all of his houses and vassals with that same oath. People were cheering but it was doubtful that many in the room understood the scope of what the war mage had just done. A careful observer would have noticed that Dumbledore was not very enthusiastic with his cheering and that Snape was absent. This declaration formally made Harry the leader of the light faction surpassing even the General and the Headmaster.

As his declaration ended, a figure at the Gryffindor table stood and raised his wand with the tip- lighted green pledging his support to Lord Peverell in this blood war. Neville Longbottom was shortly joined by Ron and Hermione and others too joined in. Within a minute, more than half of the Great Hall had their wands up and their green tips illuminating the enchanted roof but that was not the end of it. The ministry led by the General soon followed with Frank being the first to raise his wand to pledge his support. Soon every other ministry worker and Auror present in the Great Hall had raised his wand.

Harsh was sitting in an obscure corner under an invisibility cloak. He sighed deeply and nodded his approval. Harsh was no stranger to war, death and destruction. He knew too well what was coming next. But he also knew that evil had to be stopped and far too often, this was the only way. The final war had started and the wizarding Britain has chosen its leader.

**Headmaster's office**

Albus was in his office with the leader of the Mystics and a few other senior members of the ministry. There was something that had been bothering him and he wanted to ask. "Harsh, can you tell us what prompted you to come after the battle was over? Can you explain what we saw when Harry went berserk? I mean, we've never seen anything quite like that."

The mystic took his time before he started speaking, "You must understand that I cannot explain everything, Albus, You must be content with what I can say. Miss Greengrass was fated to die in that battle. When Miss Bones threw herself in front of that spell, her unselfish act of heroism changed that fate. Sadly, she will have to pay the price. There will be consequences."

Amelia asked him sharply, "Please explain what you mean by that?"

Harsh said grimly, "The curse she was hit with is a curse which eats at the magical core of a person. What is the most horrible thing about this curse is that it can never be fully abated. There is no counter to it. What I was able to do today has only postponed it. It is still working but at a very slow pace. A few years down the line when it finishes its spread, it will cause the destruction."

Amelia apprehensively asked, "Do you mean …"

He nodded in answer to her unasked question, "I wish there was something I could do, Amelia. But alas, the bitter truth is that it will eventually take effect."

Frank asked him, "Then why delay the inevitable? I mean I am really glad but wouldn't it cause her more agony and pain later?"

Harsh replied after a few moments of thinking the best way to answer, "It will not cause any more agony or pain to her than it would have caused otherwise but it will certainly hurt the Young Lord. We delay it because otherwise your champion will become useless. Without her, he will lose the will to carry on and fight. He fights for a future with her where he will have a happy family. And her stars say that she will help two families extend further before her eventual…"

The rest was left unsaid.

**The next day, Great Hall**

The headline on the front page of The Daily Prophet screamed:

_**"DEATH EATERS ATTACK HOGSMEAD!**_

_With the largest force committed to a single attack since the return of You-Know-Who, death eater forces attacked Hogsmead yesterday. Students from the nearby Hogwarts School were in the village enjoying their Valentine's Day when the attack on the unsuspecting village began. Their objectives were to attack businesses and kill as many students as they could before help could arrive and force their retreat._

_The ministry and the Aurors remain firmly tight-lipped about the entire situation. However this reporter was able to gather these accounts from a handful of people who were willing to talk: _

_'There were maybe a hundred of them, those death eaters. They moved out in squads, taking over businesses and killing as they went. They laid down wards so that nobody could get in or out. They took over the whole village before we even knew what was happening. They set up in the shops, holding students hostage._

_They didn't seem to expect any resistance. I mean, they must have known there were Aurors stationed here, but that didn't seem to concern them. I'm sure they didn't expect the students to do anything. They didn't even bother to disarm them. I suppose they were waiting for some signal that the village was secure before they started to execute the hostages._

_Well sir, the young ones weren't standing still for that. I heard that it started in The Three Broomsticks. Next thing the death eaters knew, three of them were down and the last guy in the squad ran for it. I'll tell you, it did my old heart good to see the looks on their faces when it dawned on them that the students, the students mind you, were going to take the lot of them out._

_That's when the Aurors attacked in formation and the students likewise rallied. As I live and breathe, it looked like them evil beggars were getting the worst of it! Some of us residents got fired up then. We grabbed our wands and joined the fight. But we weren't organized like them students were._

_While the Aurors and the students were keeping the invaders busy, other students were shepherding the younger ones out of harm's way. I'll tell you, I've never seen anything like it. They were organized._

_The good guys were taking some losses and it was starting to go badly for them. That's when there was a noise like a bomb going off and that lad arrived riding a hippogriff. Well sir, The Headmaster and a lot more Aurors showed up then. I don't know why the scum bags didn't run for it right then and there because it was all over for them. Dumbledore kept their leader busy while those two lads went through their forces like a hot knife through butter. I swear I've never seen anything like it._

_That was when I heard a girl scream that Susan was down or something like that. Well, the one lad who was cloaked in blackness went berserk. I'll never forget that lightning bolt he cast. The death eater he hit with it just exploded. I don't remember much of what happened after that.'_

_The organization and effectiveness of the counter attack by the students of Hogwarts suggests that they have been training. For how long or under what leadership is a matter of speculation. One student (name withheld) we interviewed at St. Mungo's made this statement:_

_'I can't tell you more but we have been preparing for it since forever. We have already had a lot of practice at it and our leader has taught us well.'_

_Who this leader is, none of the students would say. It seems to me that they are honour-bound to keep this to themselves. While there may be people at the ministry who know the facts but they are not talking either._

_According to the eye-witness account quoted in this article and many more like it, there was a coordinated effort to get students to safety. The force of ten Aurors stationed in Hogsmead was brave, disciplined and well-coordinated but also vastly out-numbered. They were quickly overwhelmed and would have perished at once if not for the timely intervention of the students. Casualties were high on both sides of this battle but much higher on the side of the Death eaters than one might expect from fighting students. _

_For some time, the students fought a holding action, distracting and harassing the death eaters while their main effort was focussed on evacuating the more vulnerable back to the castle. The battle started to go badly for the valiant students until none other than Neville Longbottom, heir and son of our General Longbottom, entered the battle, riding a hippogriff. We remind our readers that Albus Dumbledore recently took Neville on as his apprentice. The young boy lived up to any expectations we have of him. He fought like a man possessed and dispatched a handful of them to hell fighting alongside his master and mentor. They were soon joined by the boy-who-lived. He gave an opportunity to the students to evacuate others to safety while he joined Neville Longbottom and Albus Dumbledore in dispensing carnage on the battlefield. _

_There was also an incident, the details of which are unclear. It seems that the boy-who-lived who had cast only lethal spells during the fight was said to have gone berserk when the heiress of House Bones was hit with a deadly spell. He was said to have lost his control and began casting indiscriminately. He killed more than a handful of death eaters in his rage before others subdued him._

_The curious thing during the fight was that the spells which the boy-who-lived cast aren't available to ordinary witches or wizards. Even the senior Aurors of the ministry, whom this reporter had been able to interview, expressed their surprise at such spells saying:_

_'Spells like that are not common. They certainly aren't taught at Hogwarts or even the Auror Academy for that matter.'_

_This makes us feel that either the boy-who-lived is dabbling in family magics or is associated with some band of assassins who taught him such things._

_When the dead were counted, 15 students and 5 Aurors had perished during the battle. 20 more students and 4 Aurors were grievously injured of which 1 student passed away due to their injuries later in the night. A total of 65 Death eaters are dead, Antonin Dolohov, notable member of Voldemort's coveted inner circle, included._

_The General, who led the Aurors in defending the village himself, has promised that there shall be no mercy for the death eaters from now on. Orders were issued last night that from now on, the Aurors would not duel to capture but would duel to kill. It is high time that we answered their brutality with brutality."_

There was another item in the lower half of the page:

_**"The-BOY-WHO-LIVED DECLARES BLOOD WAR ON TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE**_

_An historical moment took place in the Great Hall of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry last evening. As the ministry was briefing the press on the cowardly attack on the students of the school at Hogsmeade and of the ministry's changed stance in the war against death eaters, Lord Peverell-Potter-Black-Rosier-Weber proclaimed a blood war against Tom Marvolo Riddle and his followers._

_This reporter who had the fortune to be present at that moment saw it happening. The boy-who-lived sat in the crowd of students at Gryffindor table surrounded by his peers and none of the students seemed interested in eating. They were paying attention to everything that the General, the Head of DMLE and Head Auror were saying. _

_After the General was apparently done with the press brief, Lord Peverell walked up to the staff table and took every body's attention. He was dressed in his blood smeared robes, a gash on his cheek, his eyes blood red and the emerald orbs shining like two miniature suns. When he spoke, every student hung on his word as if it were a sermon. The teachers as well as the students listened to him enraptured as he declared a blood war:_

_'TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE. YOU AND YOUR FOLLOWERS HAVE PLAGUED US LONG ENOUGH. I WILL NO LONGER STAND BY WHILE YOU TORTURE, MURDER AND PLUNDER THE INNOCENT WHO WILL NOT BOW TO YOUR WILL OR FURTHER YOUR AMBITIONS. FROM THIS MOMENT, I LORD HAROLD JAMES PEVERELL-POTTER-BLACK-ROSIER-WEBER DECLARE A BLOOD WAR ON YOU AND YOUR FOLLOWERS. YOU, YOUR DEATH EATERS, ANYONE WHO TAKES YOUR MARK AND ANYONE WHO ENTERS INTO YOUR SERVICE IS MY SWORN ENEMY. I WILL SHOW NO MERCY. I WILL GIVE NO QUARTER. I WILL NOT REST UNTIL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU HAS BEEN PUT DOWN AS THE VENOMOUS VERMIN THAT YOU ARE. SO I SAY SO MOTE IT BE.'_

_While this was a singular occurrence of itself, what followed was more surprising. As he finished making this proclamation, many of the students present stood and raised their wands in support of his proclamation expressing their commitment to his cause. This reporter was baffled when the students were joined by the Aurors of the Ministry with the General being the first to raise his wand in support._

_This event has a lot of significance for the wizarding world. According to this reporter's research, the most recent blood war was fought before the fall of Camelot. House Peverell declared a blood war against House Le Fay citing their acts of treason against the crown and their crimes against the people of Britain. When the war was over, only three fragments of House Le Fay remained of which two have gone extinct since then. House Peverell was so badly devastated that no witch or wizard, heir or descendant survived to become the next lord until the recent rise of The-Boy-Who-Lived. The support by the General and others signify that they have accepted the-boy-who-lived as their champion and will rally under his banner in the war against Tom Marvolo Riddle and those who serve him. In fact, the boy-who-lived becomes the true chosen one with this declaration of blood war."_

Accompanying the news was a photograph of Harry at the time when he was declaring the blood war. The deaths had shocked him. For Harry, now it was personal. The other side must know what they were up against.

The second page was dedicated to all the students who had died in the battle with their houses. On the third page, a news item which was published with importance was:

_**"The Order of the Snow Leopard: Are they among our own children?**_

_This reporter came across some curious sightings of the battle which gives rise to reasonable grounds to suspect that the members of the now infamous Order of the Snow Leopard are not some paid mercenaries but students studying at The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Some of the spells which were used during the battle, the damage done to the death eaters and the similarity in the death wounds to those who were killed in ambushes in the previous few months lead to the only possible conclusion: that the members of this Order are the future of the wizarding world. It begs the question- Who is teaching the students such things and who leads this order? _

_As readers may remember, it has often been speculated that none other than the current headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, leads the vaunted Order of the Phoenix which helped us survive during the last war. While this has never been confirmed or denied, the speculations kept pointing to the obvious. That Order however employed non-deadly measures, even at the peril of their own lives while trying to fight death eaters. This is part of the reason they had unofficial ministry backing. This new Order however kills first and asks questions later. It gives rise to suspicions as to what exactly this Order wants to do._

_While the ministry may have turned a blind-eye to their actions, this is a scary thought. This reporter for one would rest easier if we knew that they are not some new strain of dark wizards."_

Harry let out a deep sigh and Daphne asked him, "What happened Harry?"

"The Daily Prophet, what else. They have another gossip columnist amd it looks like she's channelling Rita Skeeter. I's just love to haul Barnabass Cuffe out of his office by his ears and remind him that responsible journalists publish verifiable facts, not this bilge!" Harry slapped the paper down on the table, his finger pointing at the offending article.

She chuckled, "Why don't you have him reprimanded, demoted or outright fired? I mean you do own the majority of the paper, don't you?"

Harry grimaced, "Sure, I could do that. Or send Aunt Andromeda to put the fear of Merlin into him. But, you tell me, Why not?"

Ron spoke around a mouthful of bacon he was rapidly consuming, "Yeah, sure. Go ahead and do that, Harry. Then you get to be censoring the news while at the same time confirming all their worst speculations."

Harry nodded, "Too right, Ron."

Hermione turned serious again, "It doesn't matter much anyway, Harry. We all support you. Rubbish like that won't change anything."

He nodded, "I suppose you are right."

Hermione who was sitting across from him asked him, "Harry, did you see Susan this morning?"

He shook his head, "I stayed in the hospital wing with her until it was well past curfew last night. Then Madam Pomfrey kicked me out telling me that I am not allowed back in till I am done with my breakfast. She can be quite scary sometimes."

When the others chuckled, Harry asked them challengingly, "I dare you all to defy Madam Pomfrey. Anyone of you who can do so will get 100 Galleons from me."

That shut all of them up. None of them in their right mind would defy Madam Pomfrey. She was one holy terror to the students.

Dumbledore stood to address the students, "yesterday was a day in the history of our world which will always be marred with the blood of those who died on the battle field. A lot of our students died so that others could live. They chose to stand for what was right rather than to bow and live. They walked among us, lived among us and have shed their blood for us. They will always remain in our hearts and keep inspiring us with their deeds. When you are in doubt or feel that you are losing your courage, remember your friends who stood up in the face of insurmountable odds so that others could live. Please join me in two minutes silence in remembrance of those who died at the Battle of Hogsmeade and those who succumbed to their injuries this morning at St. Mungo's including Ms. Moon."

The silence which followed was the heaviest period of silence for them. Everyone who had lost someone had their eyes wet and by the end of the two minute period, sniffs could be heard throughout the Great Hall. Harry himself was wiping his eyes furiously at the thought of losing such a great friend as Lilith.

From among Harry's own circle of friends, Justin was in St. Mungo's where he had spent a very hard night and lived through it. The healers had been sceptical of his chances of survival but by morning, his condition had improved. Lilith Moon had been shielding Ernie while they fought with a group of death eaters was grievously injured. She succumbed to her injuries during the night. It was a heavy loss for Ernie.

Ernie had joined them at their table and he was inconsolable. Neville patted his back trying to comfort him but there were no words. What would you say to console someone who had just made a promise to someone and they were dead by the evening? Oliver and Su Li from Ravenclaw were in the Hospital Wing but Madam Pomfrey was sure that they would recover. The battle personally had taken a lot from Harry. When the adrenaline and excitement were over, he was quite exhausted. If he hadn't taken that "nap" immediately after the battle, he likely would have passed out anyway. The deaths of all those students weighed heavily on him. And the vigil past curfew at Susan's side hadn't done him any good either. He was pale, tired and irritable. In that state of mind, he was trying to make urgent and critical decisions.

Harry saw Harsh making a gesture to him from the Staff Table and rose, "Guys, I have some errands to run. I will see you later, in the Hospital wing."

**Chamber of Secrets**

He met the mystic in the Chamber of Secrets. The mystic was sitting in his chair and asked him, "Harry what is your progress with the horcruxes?"

"Guruji, the last one out of Voldemort's control is somewhere in the castle. I guess I'm very near it. I will find it soon."

Harsh nodded, "It is important that you do it soon. However I actually wanted to know what you will do about the final battle?"

Harry spluttered, "M... Me? The General is directing the war."

Harsh shook his head, "He is directing the war, Harry but with the declaration of the blood war yesterday, you have become their leader. Now you will make the decisions while they will follow you unless you want to sit back and let them do your dirty work?"

Harry's eyes went wide, "No Guruji. A lot of people already died for me yesterday. I won't allow any of them to die anymore. When the final battle comes I will have all of them evacuated. The Aurors and I will be sufficient to defeat him and his forces."

Harsh was a veteran of more battles than Harry could even conceive. He had been a witness to the bloody campaign that had been the last blood war. He had also spent the blood of his dearest friends putting down the various dark lords over the centuries. He knew, far too well, the burden of leadership. Harsh understood, better than anyone, where Harry's statement came from, but sadly, he also knew how foolish it was. He also knew that Harry had good and wise friends and that nothing teaches wisdom like experience, so he let it go. Now he had to meet just one more person before he would eventually leave. The time for his battle with Abbadon was also coming. This time, he will die. It seemed a bit ironic that even Harsh would have a critical role to play in the blood war the young war mage had declared.

He had sent a scathing letter to Vikram and chastised him for leaving Britain. The errand in Germany was important but they should have brought more forces from Adrishpuram rather than taking him away from such an important assignment. There will be a reckoning for this laxity. There were however a few things to be discussed.

He turned to Harry, "Harry, I have been trying to track down the one who saved Voldemort in Romania. It is my understanding that he is learning a way to defeat you. As you would understand, you are not immortal yourself nor are you invincible. Any determined group of individuals can defeat you with good strategy. Voldemort cannot defeat you honestly because you possess unsullied soul which is whole. To even the odds between the both of you, there is only one thing that he can do. He would resort to barbaric use of his powers and cruelty. He would try what has been tried only a few times and if he is successful, he will pose threat to you."

"What is it, Guruji?"

Harsh said gravely, "The Parasite Spell."

Harry asked him curiously, "What does it do?"

"It will allow him to claim the magical powers of all of his followers when he needs it. In that condition, the only thing that he will need to do is to keep you engaged in battle and tire you out. Even though you are very fit wizard yet you cannot stand against him indefinitely. When you falter, he will move in against you."

"And how do I defeat him?"

Harsh smirked with pleasure, "Oh there is something that you can do, Harry."

**Unknown Castle**

Wagner woke up in the hospital wing. His side felt like he'd been kicked by an angry hippogriff and the rest of his body ached. He looked up at the healer who looked relieved, "Oh good, you're awake."

"What happened? Why am I hurting all over?"

The healer replied, "You don't remember what happened? Were you not fighting someone?"

He remembered bits and pieces of the battle, "We were attacking Hogsmeade and I was fighting Albus Dumbledore. We were in a public place so he was not using any lethal spells on me…"

The healer cut into his line of thought, "Quite wrong, Mr. Wagner. Dumbledore might not have hit you with curses which would have killed you outright but every spell that he hit you with was intended to cause hurt to you. When you came in, many of your organs were damaged; you were losing blood due to internal bleeding, your heart was in danger of stopping anytime due to loss of blood to pump and not enough oxygen supply. And yet, there was no outward visible damage. It is possible you would not have realised the threat to your life until you had succumbed to him. May be he wanted to capture you after having injured you but the thing is you were just a step short of death and we had to work fast to save you."

"What happened to the others? How many survived?"

Lucius Malfoy spoke as he entered the room, "We were hoping you could fill us in on that, Mr. Wagner. You took 80 men with you and only 15 returned. Incidentally all of them were your fellow Germans except for three of our own men. What happened there?"

"I don't really know. We set up our wards and took over the village as planned. As we rounded up the students to execute them before the Aurors could arrive. I remember having killed a couple of students before Travers came running out of the inn. He told me that students had killed his companions. It all went south from there. Those students were better organised than many forces that I have seen. They knew what they were about and none of them were afraid to die. It was as if they did not have the fear of death in their lives. I saw students jumping in front of killing curses meant for their friends. I have never seen such camaraderie and love among people. In the time it took to adjust to the students fighting us, they pushed us back and even killed many of our companions. That didn't last long. We rallied, killed 4 Aurors and were doing great having cornered many students. That's when that boy came in flying on a Hippogriff and destroyed the wards by sheer strength."

Lucius exclaimed, "Destroyed wards? A single boy? But how? I mean he would have to be immensely powerful and then it would take some time. Are you sure he took them down himself?"

Wagner growled, "Now that you mention it, that's not clear. The old fool was right there with him. All I know is the wards shook just once, then there was an explosion and the wards were gone. He must have devised a spell to cause such an effect then. And what an entry he made. Even I was mesmerised by it for a minute. He jumped down from the hippogriff and as soon as his feet hit the ground, he took the head off one of my men with a bombarda. The boy however was the least of my concerns because Albus Dumbledore was with him. They gave enough time for others to flee. When my men tried to shoot down two of the escaping students, their spells were blocked by an earthen wall. By that time the boy-who-lived had arrived. You all call him just a little boy and he fought with us like a being possessed. He displayed such cruelty that a butcher would look humane next to him. One of the students fell and he went berserk and cast such spells that I have not even heard of. I am telling you, Malfoy that if that boy is fighting against you then even 10 of you together don't stand a chance against him."

Malfoy growled, "What happened afterwards?"

"I was hurt and fading fast. I decided to make my escape before I died too. Dumbledore was casting magic the likes of which I have never seen nor did I expect the old wizard to be so powerful. He moved with speed that much younger men could not match."

"What do you think caused our failure, Mr. Wagner? I mean two of the members of the Dark Lord's inner circle also died."

Wagner looked up in surprise, "Who?"

"Dolohov. His names featured in the list of the dead and it wasn't pretty either. I am told that he died as if he had been executed. Travers, I believe had been taken captive and I don't have any hope that he will live. Now the question that I have is where do we go from here, Mr. Wagner. What do you think was the reason for our defeat at Hogsmeade?"

"Your people failed to keep track of what is happening on the other side, Malfoy. We were not told what they are capable of. The students knew as many curses and jinxes as any of your death eaters, they were accustomed to duelling and they had formations as if they have been holding drills for battles like these. They had a bloody army out there. Either Hogwarts has started teaching military arts to its students or they are being trained in secret from another source. And I believe that your spy, whoever he is, is either incompetent or has already defected from your side."

Malfoy did not know about this spy. He knew Severus was at Hogwarts but he couldn't be the only spy. The Dark Lord was not the sort of person to keep all his eggs in one basket. He also bristled at the allegations of incompetency. But the truth was that they had been blind to everything that had been happening. He certainly hadn't known about students being trained for war but here they were. Mere students had kept the tide of death eaters from causing mayhem. When the Dark Lord returns, he will be angry and heads will roll. Unfortunately for Lucius, he was one of the few who were left of the inner circle and as such, he could be the target of the Dark Lord's fury. Running away was not an option since he had seen what happened to Igor Karkroff when Voldemort found him. He didn't have to imagine what sort of tortures would be meted out to him.

**Bulgaria**

Madame Alexandrov was in her office, perusing the Daily Prophet at a furious pace. Since she believed in keeping herself abreast with developments around the world, one of the employees of the Bulgarian Ministry fetched a copy of prominent newspapers every day for her and for other high ranking ministry officials.

The good thing was that Wizarding Britain didn't look like a backwater if it came to a war. She knew how they had insisted on non lethal force during the last war and that policy had caused immense damage to them. This time they were serious and in no mood to parley with or give a chance to the death eaters to redeem themselves. This was good. This meant that she could help them without being subjected to inhibitions which would put and her boys' lives in danger.

Viktor Krum had also written her a letter which was delivered with the newspaper. The letter told her that Wizarding Britain under the new Minister had been preparing for the war since last summer. Even their students were training in defensive magic so that if surrounded, they could defend themselves or even counter attack.

When Viktor had told her that Voldemort had returned after the Triwizard tournament, she had been sceptical. But when he told her that Albus Dumbledore himself had said this, she had every reason to believe him. Albus Dumbledore was no rumourmonger. He only said something after he had carefully weighed his words.

She had been raising a force after learning about the changing of the guard at the British Ministry. A former Auror at the helm of affairs was the best thing that they could do. He would not bow to pressure, would not talk of peace and empathy in war and answer brutality with brutality. That was the reason she had decided to support them and made Viktor her emissary.

For now, she had 70 Aurors who were daily running through the gauntlet while she also knew that Viktor's father was trying to raise another force. Since they had attacked students, the final battle wouldn't be far away now.

**France**

Monseiur Sebastian Delacour read the newspaper and sighed. His heart broke for those students who had been killed in the battle of Hogsmeade. He had been actively trying to raise a force since the New Year ball where he had met the boy-who-lived and the new minister, Frank Longbottom. He knew that his own ministry was not in favour of actively participating in this war but he knew better. He knew that Voldemort was not already winning and if substantial opposition was presented, he may be killed. Sebastian was determined to make that happen.

He had already raised a force and his good friend Bossompierre was training the Aurors. They already had a force of 50 Aurors on their side. By the time of final battle, they will have more. Once the houses of Wizarding Britain had shed their blood for the wizarding world without any thanks and now it was time that they were helped.

**Leaky Cauldron**

The wizarding public was abuzz with the news. They were obviously grieving and angry with the deaths but they were also proud of the valour the students showed. The public in the inn was crowded around a table occupied by an old and frail wizard who had a few strands of hair on his bald head, wearing robes which would have been in fashion about a century ago, a beard which reached down to his chest and his tiny voice held such authoritativeness that one could not help but be attracted to it.

One of the patrons of the inn was asking, "What does this blood war mean?"

"Blood war, lad, is something that has not been declared since times of legends. The history books record that the last blood war was fought long before even the ministry came into being. All these Ancient and Most Noble Houses weren't even conceived then. Most of them were just houses. At that time, there were three houses which were considered above every other house. They were the house of Pendragon which later produced King Arthur, the house of Le Fay and the House of Peverell. Some feud erupted between House of Le Fay and House of Peverell and things became so tense that there was blood-shed and war. House Peverell initially tried to solve the disputes amicably but after many of its members were killed treacherously by House Le Fay, they declared that the dispute won't end until one of the houses was extinguished to the last member. Both sides started accumulating members to their side and the war started. This blood war lasted for 2 decades. It only ended when the House of Le Fay was reduced to three fragments. The House of Greengrass exists to this day but the other two fragments, the main family line which bore the infamous witch Morgana kept going for a few more generations until the fall of Camelot while the third line was extinguished by the end of that blood war. Since then there has not been a blood war. These are bloody. There is no way to end them until at least one of the sides had utterly been destroyed to the last man."

This chilled them to their bones. No one spoke for a few minutes. Some wondered, chosen one or not, did the 15-year-old lord really know what he was getting into when he declared a blood war? Finally another patron spoke, "So what happens now with this blood war?"

The elder spoke after collecting his thoughts for a few moments, "It was reckless of him to declare a blood war but now that it has been done there is only one way that it can go. Tom Marvolo Riddle and everyone who serves him or associates with him will die or he and his supporters will win. Either way, one of the sides will be totally annihilated. It was reckless of Harold Peverell to have declared this blood war."

One of the patrons snapped, "After this cowardly attack on our children, the death eaters deserve nothing less! But, unless he's studied his history, I'm not so sure he knows what he's getting into."

**Ministry of Magic**

"Alastor, what is the report?", asked Frank of Moody. They had not tackled this issue yet because there had been no time. Moody had been busy making enquiries, collecting reports, recording statements and overseeing his men until now.

Frank had been in conference with the headmaster, the head of mystics and the head of DMLE about the war and this declaration of blood war. Harsh had told him that the ministry should not stop doing its duty yet Frank knew that the leadership of this war had shifted from him to Harry. They will march under his banner to war.

When Neville had raised his wand in support to Harry's proclamation of blood war, Frank knew he would support it too. In fact, House of Longbottom couldn't be seen standing apart from House of Potter as was the tradition.

"General from what I have heard, there were two members of Voldemort's inner circle in the battle. One of them, Dolohov, was killed outright. I have been told that the Weasley twins engaged him after he attacked them to get to a group of students they were protecting. The other was Travers. He fell to Sirius Black. He was alive when he was arrested however this morning, his body collapsed into nothing. One of the healers suggested that he was probably cursed during the battle and since then the curse was eating him from inside. I am told he had a very painful night and his cries could have curdled blood. As for their escapees, there is no certain number about them."

"What can you tell me about the deaths at the hands of the students? Do you have a record of it?"

Moody shook his head, "It is difficult to find out who killed how many but there were very many students who didn't kill. They were mostly intent on disabling the death eaters so that once fallen they couldn't rise again. Mostly those who killed did it out of instinct of self-preservation and to save lives."

"Were they members of the Order of the Snow Leopard?"

"General, you know full-well that even if I knew, I couldn't tell you. I mean the lad has been training students but nobody is privy to the details."

"Mr. Harsh, what do you think they will do now?", asked the General of Harsh who was present there at special request of the General.

"As far as my understanding goes they will do nothing right now. I mean they have suffered a major blow so to launch a full frontal assault would not be the wise course of action for them. What they can do instead is to wait and let the ministry get complacent. In the meantime that the ministry does not forget about them, they would strike here and there", replied Harsh.

Moody growled, "Just because something is bone-head stupid, doesn't mean they won't do it. I wouldn't be surprised if they launched a full-scale assault on the Ministry this very afternoon. Besides, what will they gain by staying in their little hidey hole anyway? If they do that, people might stop fearing them and fear is their main weapon."

"I believe they will devote this time preparing for a final battle. This time, they will try to choose the battle ground as opposed to you choosing it. If there were any spies for you in their order, I would that they try to persuade their dark lord to attack at a time and place of your choosing."

Frank spoke after thinking it over for a few moments, "The ministry has no spy in their midst but I think the Order of the Phoenix may. We will have to talk to Dumbledore about it. What kind of bait would be tempting enough to lure Voldemort out of his hole and into a confrontation with us?"

Harsh smirked, "On that count, I think Harry can help you General. He has something which would be as dear to Tom as his own soul."

**Greece**

"Boy!", Abbadon growled, "Get your butt in here this moment or I'll come there and whip it until it glows."

Voldemort was busy cooking food for both of them when Abbadon called him. The old master had been treating him this way and it grated on his nerves. Abbadon gave him snippets of information but had not taught him anything substantial yet. He would tell him something, leave him to mull it over for the entire day and pick it up the next day.

He had wanted to strangle Abbadon in his sleep once or twice over this attitude but as he found out to his woe, the old master never slept. He felt Voldemort creeping up to him in the dead of night and then he had brutally punished him with bone breakers. The only reason Abbadon hadn't managed to kill him was that he had Horcruxes.

"Stop day dreaming boy", growled Abbadon again. Voldemort made haste. It wouldn't do to antagonize him.

When he entered the chamber, Abbadon threw a paper at him, "Read that, you worthless apprentice. Your foolish followers will annihilate themselves."

A cursory look at the front page had him howling with fury. Those idiots! How dare they! They got so many killed in one go. Those pretentious idiots!

"Stop howling, boy. Your followers have been dying in droves since you left them in charge. What fool was left in charge of your forces?"

Voldemort growled, "I left my most ruthless, most able and most cunning follower Bellatrix Nameless in charge of them and gave her the duty to terrorise the ministry."

Abbadon chuckled evilly, "Oh, that one. She died about three weeks ago."

Voldemort's anger erupted, "WHAT! And no one told me about it?"

"Your followers are scared of you, boy. Most of them only follow you out of fear, a few want to make some profit from your campaign. There are only a handful of them who are really loyal to you."

"Do you know how many were killed?", Voldemort asked of his master.

Abbadon threw a bundle of papers at him. Every issue had the defeat of some of his death eaters as front page news, "See this. Your campaign has been failing since you left. Meyer informed me that he had told you about it."

Voldemort read the names of those who had died with fury welling up inside him. So many... So many of the members of his inner circle were dead and none of them had informed him. May be he should return now before they got everyone killed. He however will have to punish them to know that he was indeed angry.

As if he were reading his pupil's thoughts, Abbadon spoke, "You will not punish any of your followers". He continued, "They are expendables but they will enhance your strength in the final battle. So, it will be in your favour if you keep as many of them alive as you can manage. The Parasite spell requires it. The greater the number of followers, the better will be your chances of success."

Voldemort grumbled, "I would know it if you had taught me."

Abbadon slapped him hard, "Haven't I told you that I don't like whiners, boy? You still have a week left of the period you promised to stay under my tutelage. This is the last trick that I will ever teach you."

Voldemort nodded meekly, "yes master."

Abbadon smirked, "And boy, I have found out why the boy didn't die by the killing curse twice."

Voldemort asked eagerly, "Please tell me, master."

"You have told me that you already had 5 horcruxes by the time you went to kill the boy on that Halloween night. He survived the first killing curse because of the protection of his mother. As your spell rebounded and hit you, something happened which nobody had foreseen. My theory is that your soul was so fragile that it broke in two. One part latched onto the only living thing in that room, that being the boy. You made him into another horcrux. When you hit him with the killing curse in the graveyard, you destroyed that horcrux. Meaning that the only being you hurt was you. Bravo.

Careless! Thoughtless! Impulsive! Great galloping goblins, boy! Don't you ever bother to think?" With that last, Abbadon lapsed into silence and glared at his pupil.

Voldemort sat in contemplation for a long time before he eventually asked, "Does this mean that the boy can be killed by the Killing Curse now?"

Abbadon Slapped the Dark Lord upside the head, hard, "Is that all you ever think about boy? 'Can I kill him now? Can I kill him now?' I swear, boy, you sound like a toddler begging for candy! You've got a snowball's chance in Tartarus of killing that boy with that inane spell. He'll block it three different ways and put you down into the deal before you can finish shouting the incantation. You're going to have to do better than that."

Voldemort's head was ringing from the slap, his ego bruised by the insults, but for his master, this was a teaching moment. He folded his hands, "What are my instructions, master?"

* * *

**A/N- So guys, I hope to make few things clear here.**

**1\. Harry loves Susan. I know you all may see her bossing him around but he lets her do this. She knows this and if Harry wasn't really interested in her, he wouldn't have let her do that. She loves him to bits and would die for him without blinking an eye-lid. I thought I should clear the air for the hate that she seems to be getting. Most of the time, they are being playful with each other, acting their age. If I don't write the expressions in their faces or mannerisms, you don't have to assume that she was bossing him around or being nasty.**

**2\. He won't ditch his friends. I have read those fics which are more like one-man army Harry but not this one. I am trying to write a grand story involving everyone. I don't like how the canon did not touch upon many things that could have been done.**

**I really love your reviews so may be, leave me a couple of them?**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hospital Wing**

Harry met with every student who had been injured or wounded in the battle to ask after their well being in addition to helping out where he could. The number of Slytherin students among those who had been injured trying to defend or evacuate others convinced him that his decision to include Slytherins when he started training them was right but he was filled with guilt for those who had died.

Susan was still bed-ridden and could not move by herself. She had tried once only to fell flat on her face and the healer, Sushrut, had sternly told her that if she tried one more idiotic thing then he would put a permanent sticking charm on her and forget it. That had convinced her to listen to him. The healer was a man of average height, black brown eyes, balding and stocky. Susan had a feeling that he could be a fighter as well when it was needed. Since she had seen him tending to her she hadn't heard him speak more than necessary. He was also responsible for the entire hospital wing since Madam Pomfrey was a nurse but not a fully qualified healer and he was extremely able. He however often deferred to Poppy Pomfrey when the situation demanded it.

"Hey Susan", called Daphne, "How are you this morning?"

She grinned widely at her, "Hi Daph. I'm fine. Where is Harry?"

"Oh, he is running some errand. He said that he would come by later. Hermione and some others stopped to ask after the health of the injured students here", said Daphne. After a moment, she said with some hesitation, "Susan, there's something that I wanted to talk with you about."

Susan eyed her suspiciously, "What?"

"I wanted to thank you. You know if you hadn't jumped in the way of that curse, it would have been me."

Susan waved aside her concern, "I only did what a friend would do for another, Daph. In fact you would have done the same for me if our places were reversed."

"Still, I thank you for it, Susan. If life permits, I will try to repay it anyway I can", she said earnestly.

**Ministry of Magic**

Frank was holding a meeting in his office, "Do you understand your orders, Alastor?"

"Yes Minister. I understand. I assure you that we will not fail in this. I will instruct my boys to use lethal spells in every fight they might find themselves in as I will do also. I have already chosen those who will be placed in charge of this operation."

Frank nodded, "And don't forget to liaise with the other guys. They will be our eyes and ears for the next few months while we sit in the shadows and prepare."

Alastor clicked his heels and marched out of his office, heading to the interrogation room where Amelia was busy breaking bones of a death eater who had irked her. She had fury and angry pent up inside her and she had been looking for a way to let it out. Moody had obliged by showing her the interrogation room and his little tools. Pain was on the menu and she was serving up a heaping helping to her prisoner.

**Hogwarts**

Daphne was walking back to her dormitory from the hospital wing just before curfew hour. She had been helping Madam Pomfrey tend to students when she could since that way she also was kept in the know about how the students were mending and what was going on the in the world yonder as the mediwitch was prone to gossip sometimes. The wizard that Harry had introduced to her, Lord Harsh Vardhan, had visited the hospital wing during the day to talk with Madam Pomfrey and they sat together for long. Poppy Pomfrey talked with him as if he was an old friend and he had an aura of authoritativeness around him. She could feel that the wizard was powerful and that he was someone important but in all her studies of magical history and snippets of information given by her mother or taught by her father she had never heard of this particular man.

She had seen the level of reverence that Harry had for him, how he hung on every word of his. She had never seen the boy-who-lived be so respectful to anyone else. He behaved with most of them as if they were his equal but not Harsh. It was visible to her that he held the older wizard in high esteem.

"Good evening, heiress presumptive Greengrass", said Harsh emerging out of the shadows and startling her.

She had her wand out in a moment but Harsh had not even his wand out. He looked at ease as if emerging out of the shadows was normal for him. The wand in Daphne's hand was of no concern to him.

She tried to control her thudding heart, "Lord Harsh, you startled me."

"My apologies", he said with a smile, "It was not my intention."

"What do you want?", she asked.

He said very sombrely, "I wanted a private conversation with you, if agreeable to you and it is important that we have this conversation."

She eyed him suspiciously, "What do you want to talk about?"

"The life debt created between you and Miss Bones among other things", he answered her "To show that I don't have any overt intentions towards you or anyone else, I will take a magical oath to that effect."

When she acquiesced, he pulled out his wand and firmly gripped it in his hands, "I Sharang Varun, do hereby swear on my magic that I have no intention to hurt or injure Daphne Alexis Greengrass and that what I am going to say is the truth as I know it. If I am found untruthful in my words or intention, may mother magic smite me. So I say so mote it be."

When she was convinced, he showed her into an empty room, "I promise it won't take more than a few minutes."

When they were inside the room and fully secured, he turned to her, "Miss Greengrass, what do you know about life debts?"

She thought it over for a minute before she replied, "When a person saves another's life, a debt is created between them. In repayment for the debt, one can ask anything of the other. It does not come into existence unless both parties are willing to acknowledge it."

Harsh nodded, "Precisely. When you discussed the issue of life debt with Susan, you acknowledged it. She also acknowledged its existence even if she did not agree to any repayment. So there is a life debt unfulfilled between the two of you and then you promised to repay it if the occasion ever came. Now you are bound by your magic to this promise and unless you fulfil it, you will be bound by it."

She nodded, "Yes. I will repay it, if the occasion comes. What does it have to do with anything?"

"Miss Greengrass when she saved you, she changed the fates. You were supposed to die out there due to that curse but she took it on herself. From now that every life you save were meant to perish in battle. It was a little event but will have ramifications. If you see any death eater, please put him down with no hesitation for any death caused by him will fall on you otherwise."

She didn't say anything for about 10 minutes. When she spoke, Harsh could sense fear in her voice, "What does it entail? The changing of fates I mean. I guess it is not a common occurrence so there must be some price to be paid. What is that price? Who will pay it?"

He said grimly, "It's something that happens perhaps once in a century and requires a payment. Be assured though that the payment is already decided and you won't be paying it. However there will be a time in life when you will have a way to repay your debt towards Susan."

She said apprehensively, "And what is it?"

Harsh asked, "Tell me, Miss Greengrass. What are your feelings towards Mr. Peverell?"

**Tale of the Grey lady**

That evening, Harry finally sought out Luna. She had been in the Ravenclaw common room since the battle, not venturing out. She was in agony over the deaths and had cut herself off from everyone to grieve in solitude. Of course she knew what was going to happen but she could not interfere for that would alter the fates. She knew of the rule but it was hard for her to endure it all and she felt somehow guilty for not telling everyone but doing so would have put her in a spot where others would run to her with every problem inundating her with requests and blaming her if something went wrong.

Harry met Padma outside of the Ravenclaw common room as she was about to answer the question of the door knocker, "Padma, do you have a moment?"

She turned to him, "Yes Harry. What is it?"

"Would you please tell Luna that I'm waiting here to meet with her?"

Padma nodded, "I'll try Harry, but she's been hiding in her dorm for a few days now. She does not venture out nor does she talk to anyone. I hope you understand what I am getting at."

He nodded, "I do understand, Padma but it is important for me to meet her."

Luna came out after about 10 minutes. She looked awful. She had bags under eyes like she had not been sleeping well, her robes were wrinkled as if she hadn't care about them at all and she didn't have the dreamy look about her anymore.

Harry frowned when he saw her, "Luna, what happened to you?"

She waved aside his concerns, "The Grey lady is on the Astronomy tower. Let's go and find her."

They found the Grey Lady where she said they would. At the foot of the tower, Luna turned to him, "I have foreseen that I should not be present in this meeting. I will see you later, Harry." With that she walked away. Harry recognized that Luna was in a bad way. She had never been so direct about her talents. Being a seer must be a great burden when things go badly.

Harry took the stairs to the top of the tower where the Grey Lady was. She was on the tower looking toward the setting sun apparently oblivious to everything about her. When Harry neared her, she said over her shoulder, "You have come to ask me about my mother's diadem, haven't you?"

Harry's mouth fell open, "Your mother? Do you mean…"

As she turned, Harry could see her pain reflected in those eyes, her countenance was dim as if she was sad about something. She said in a low voice, "Yes, I am Helena Ravenclaw. I took the diadem from my mother and ran away with it. My mother who wanted me and her diadem returned, sent the bloody Baron after me. When he found me eventually, he tried to convince me to come back with him. I tried to resist him and…" She trailed off, remembering the terrible event.

Harry encouraged her to continue, "And…? What did he do?"

Helena shot him a disdainful look, "Have some patience. I only speak of this for Luna's sake. It would suit me fine to leave you stumbling around in the dark for the rest of eternity."

Harry looked down at his toes and muttered, "Sorry".

After some time, The Grey lady continued, "I tried to resist him and he bound me with chains, determined to do my mother's bidding. She had promised him my hand in marriage. I resisted him and called him some evil names. That was when he stabbed me in the abdomen."

She lifted her cloak to one side to show the ethereal gaping wound in her stomach and then covered it. "In remorse, he killed himself. As an act of penance he still wears those chains to this day."

Harry was shocked, "Do you mean The Bloody Baron as in the ghost of Slytherin? That he never takes off the chains and they are smeared with your blood?"

She nodded, "Yes. He is the wizard my mother sent after me. Those chains are the mark of his punishment that he is cursed to wear. Bound by the diadem, I remain on this plane. His guilt and desire to repent keep him from passing into the afterlife."

"But what happened to the diadem? Where is it? Can you tell me?"

She shook her head, "I had hidden it in an ancient tree in the forests of Albania. I won't tell you anything more about it. I was once fooled by a boy who told me that he didn't want to use it but would return it to the wizarding world. He instead used it for his nefarious purposes and tainted it. The most prized possession of my mother is reduced to being a foul vessel."

Harry decided to tell her what he suspected, "It was Tom Riddle, wasn't it? He stole the diadem from its hiding place after graduating from Hogwarts. He made it into a horcrux. Please tell me where it is so that we can exorcise it and kill him finally or thousands more will die," by the time he finished speaking Harry was literally pleading with her.

She was adamant, "How do I know that you won't use it to gain more power? Besides my existence to this plane is bound to it. If you exorcise it then I will cease to exist. My soul would move on to the other plane and the Bloody Baron with me."

Harsh emerged from the shadows saying, "And what would be the problem with that, O noble Helena? You lived a life of misery under the fame and stern upbringing of your mother. Your promising life was cut short by the act of one whose love towards you was unrequited. You suffered through your life, you suffer now in your afterlife and yet you cling to this existence where there is nothing for you".

She turned to him, "I was wondering if we would ever meet again, Sharang. I always looked toward you for sage advice. When you were not around to counsel me, I made some choices that lead to this fate", she finished, gesturing toward her fatal wound. With a hopeful tone she asked, "Do you bring me a message from Mother magic?"

He shook his head, "In a sense, Helena. I am merely to tell you that your time here is at end. It is time for you to pass onto the afterlife where your mother waits to reconcile her differences with you. She was in pain when she died for she knew that her daughter was killed and she still repents sending the Baron after you. Go on to the afterlife, noble lady and help the world to get rid of the terror known as Tom Marvolo Riddle."

She nodded, "Your advice I have always followed. If you had been my benefactor when I needed it then maybe things would have been different. I will do as you ask."

She turned to Harry, "Go to the Room which answers when called upon. The room which gives help to those who need it. Ask it for the place where people have been hiding treasures since the castle was founded. There you will find the diadem which holds the key to Voldemort's existence. You will need help from those who know his presence. Now, you must promise that you will not use it for your own selfish purposes."

Eagerly, Harry drew his wand. Holding it tightly, he bowed his head and said, "I solemnly swear on my magic that I will never use the diadem except to exorcise it and to give it to the wizarding world."

At that moment, they were joined by the Bloody Baron. Helena looked at him and said, "Come now my assassin. Onwards we go to the afterlife. There we will be judged for our crimes. We have tarried for too long and it is time to rest."

The Baron turned to Harry and said gruffly, "Good bye, young lad. Send him to hell where he deserves to go. Tell Albus that we go together to meet our fate."

The ghosts began drifting toward the Forbidden Forest when suddenly a golden light engulfed them and they disappeared in a flash.

Harry muttered, "That was truly strange."

Harsh who was still beside him, his eyes moist said, "Yes, it was."

Harry turned to him, "Are they really gone, Guruji? I mean will they never return?"

He nodded, "They have gone back to the folds of mother magic where everyone eventually goes. Now let's go and find Albus for we need some help."

"What help?", Harry asked curiously.

"Helena told you to seek help of those who know his presence i.e. his magical signature. There are only a handful of people who can claim so. We will need Neville Longbottom who sensed his magical signature at the cave, Ginny Weasley for her unfortunate incident with the diary acquainted her with his magical signature and of course Albus Dumbledore who probably knows him more than anyone else.".

When Harsh took his hand they disappeared to reappear in Albus's office.

They found Albus in his office reading the journal which he had found in the Archives that had once belonged to Helena. It was an interesting account of the life of a young witch from an era gone by but otherwise, there was nothing in it to suggest the location of the diadem.

He raised his head when Harsh and Harry appeared in his office and pointed them to chairs, "be seated."

After they made themselves comfortable, Albus turned to them, "So what is the reason for this unannounced visit?"

Harsh let Harry explain, "Professor, we finally found Helena."

Dumbledore was surprised, "You found. Helena? Where? How? Did you get the diadem?"

Harry shook his head, "She told us the location but we still haven't retrieved it. When she died centuries ago, she didn't pass into the afterlife. She remained as a ghost, the Grey Lady, the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower. Voldemort somehow discovered her identity and her connection to the diadem. He convinced her to tell him its location. When she did, he stole it."

Dumbledore asked excitedly, "But where is it?"

"Helena told us to go to the room which gives help to those who need it where we will find it in the place that people have been hiding treasures for ages. We will need Ginny and Neville to help us with this task. I'm pretty sure she was talking about the Room of Requirement. Can you have them meet us on the seventh floor outside the Room of Requirement?"

Dumbledore whipped out his wand and produced his patronus giving it directions. It floated out of his office toward the Gryffindor tower while they climbed stairs to the Room of Requirement.

**The Room of Requirement**

By the time they arrived, Neville and Ginny were already waiting for them outside the room. As they saw the party, Ginny asked him, "Harry, what's happening?"

Dumbledore answered, "Miss Weasley, you and Neville are uniquely qualified to assist us with this task. We are here to find an object, something that will feel like Tom Riddle. Since both of you, through chance or misadventure, are familiar with his magical signature, we hope you can help us find it."

Ginny's eyes went wide as the colour drained from her face, "D-do you mean another object like that cursed diary?"

Dumbledore's eyebrows lifted momentarily before he nodded solemnly, "Indeed, Miss Weasley. We are looking for just such an object."

Neville looking back and forth between them, settled on asking the Headmaster, "What exactly are you two talking about?"

Dumbledore stared at the wall as if it could answer for him before he spoke, "Young Master Longbottom, what we seek is an object of the most foul magic imaginable. I'm sure that if you found it, you may not know exactly what it is, but there would be no doubt in your mind that you had it. It contains a portion, a fragment if you will of Tom Riddles damaged soul. In this particular case, we believe it to be the lost diadem of Ravenclaw."

Ofcourse Neville knew that they were looking for Horcruxes but the Headmaster could not just go on to announce it in front of Ginny too.

While this exchange was going on, Harry walked back and forth in front of where the door to the Room of Requirement generally appeared muttering, "I need the Diadem of Ravenclaw.", three times. The wall mocked him by remaining stubbornly blank. He asked the people gathered, "What's wrong? It should have shown me the room."

Harsh looked at Harry and said, "Think about what Helena told you."

Harry stopped pacing for a moment and reviewed what the Gray Lady told him. Then he started pacing up and down in front of the wall again saying, "I need a place to hide something." The moment he passed the wall for the third time, double doors appeared. They were high, elaborately carved and looked like they were made of solid gold. Harsh drew his wand and stepped through first, followed by Dumbledore, Neville, Harry and Ginny last.

The moment Harry entered the room, he took in the light, streaming from the dirty high windows through the dusty air. He scanned the hills of discarded contraband and broken or unwanted refuse, piles of junk higher than a man's head, some reached all the way to the vaulted ceiling. He recognized it from the memory he took from Voldemort during the battle at the Ministry. He exhaled with relief, "This is the right room. The diadem is in here."

Dumbledore found his voice next, "I will have to get this room emptied. The books can be sent to the library, the cauldrons will be sent to the dungeons. In a similar way, uses can be found for other things. It will keep me and the elves busy for months and make them very happy."

Harsh chided him, "You are excitable as a child, Albus. We have to do what we have come here to do today. The rest can be done in spare time."

Neville, Ginny and Harry spread out in different directions, trying to find the object. The problem was that every magical object had a different magical signature so it was all jumbled up. By himself it would have taken quite some time for Harry to find it. With the three of them at the job, it could be accomplished in half the time.

Harry fully expected to find the diadem straight off. He carefully reviewed the image of where he had seen the diadem, comparing the angles of the light and recognizable land-marks. There were two problems with his approach. First, Voldemort had never been in this room at this time of day. Second, nearly 50 years had past and most of the stuff had more stuff piled on it since then. Trying to figure it out gave him a headache.

Neville was being methodical. He was painstakingly examining the magical signature of each item, one-by-one. If anything had Voldemort's taint on it or tried to masquerade as something it was not, he was going to find it. The problem was that he was going to be older than Dumbledore by the time he finished the search.

Ginny could never forget the magical signature of the one who possessed then tried to kill her. His endless thirst for power, his swaggering overconfidence and his sense of entitlement were forever engraved into her memory and her soul. Yes, the stench of Voldemort was in this room. She followed the familiar reek, passing one mound of trash and treasure after another. Gradually, the sense of dread and the feeling pulled harder at her. She wasn't trained for this nor was she trained in Occlumency so there was little she could do to resist. After some time, she found herself in front of a cabinet which stood off to one side groaning under a lot of junk. It looked pretty ordinary by itself but beside it, was a statue of an ugly warlock with a crown on its head. The feeling from that crown was what drew and repulsed her at the same time. She felt unclean and wanted to run away but another part of her, a part that was getting stronger by the second, wanted to pick up that crown and place it on her own head. She could feel it, the promise of power, wisdom, knowledge even wealth beyond her wildest dreams. All she had to do was to take that diadem and sneak away then it would all be hers. Her feet moved by themselves. Without any conscious effort from her, the diadem was easily in arm's reach, her hand floating up to seize that priceless, beautiful artefact. Yes! It could all be hers…

"Stop! Snap out of it, Miss Weasley! It is trying to possess you. You must resist.", Harsh's voice rang out in her mind sending a jolt through her.

Suddenly, the most beautiful and desirable artifact in the whole world became a tarnished, dusty, cob-web encrusted piece of junk with a nasty infestation. Her hand dropped back to her side as she stepped back from the horrid thing. She shouted, "It's here! I found it!"

Harsh had marked how Ginny seemed to just walk purposefully as if she were following a painted line on the floor. She didn't appear to be using any kind of detection spells or even looking around her. He recalled that Dumbledore had told him about how she had been possessed by the diary horcrux three years ago and guessed that she might be vulnerable. As she wove her way between the small mountains of abandoned artifacts, he kept her in sight until he was sure that the abomination against Mother Magic was controlling her. When she began to reach for the diadem with her bare hand, he acted quickly to save her from a second possession.

Ginny shuddered as Harsh came to her side and said feebly, "It. It was talk... talking to me."

Harsh said sympathetically, "I understand Miss Weasley what it was trying to do. It was playing with your mind, a desperate attempt to save itself. But this can give you nothing of the sort that it promised."

"Have you found it?", asked Dumbledore who had just come up with Harry and Neville close behind.

Harsh pointed out the diadem to them, "This is the famed diadem of Ravenclaw. With it in our possession, we are one step near to kill Tom Riddle." With that, Harsh levitated it off the bust of the wizard to store in a box with runes drawn on it. The moment the object was in the box, Ginny felt the pressure it was exerting on her abate. The colour returned to her face as she heaved a sigh of relief. Harsh wasted no time slipping the box into an inside pocket of his robe. He turned to Dumbledore whose attention was fixed on something else.

"Albus, what are you looking at?", he asked.

Dumbledore turned to him finally, "A curious thing. I believe this is a vanishing cabinet", He gestured toward a cabinet as tall as himself with what looked like acid damage to the finish on the doors.

Neville asked, "What is a Vanishing Cabinet?"

"Incomplete.", said Dumbledore cryptically. He paused for a moment before he continued thoughtfully, "They always come in pairs. If this cabinet is here, it has a twin somewhere. The idea is that one could place any article or person in one cabinet, then close the door and poof, it would turn up in the other cabinet. They were very popular during the last war as a way to disappear through all kinds of wards and barriers when the death eaters came to call."

Harsh asked excitedly, "Where is its partner?"

Dumbledore frowned, "I don't recall where it is or even who brought this here in the first place. Let's see if a closer inspection will yield something."

He opened the old cabinet but there appeared to be nothing special about it. A couple of detection spells revealed that it was not in working condition. Dumbledore turned to them, "Neville and Harry, this cabinet isn't working properly. I'm going to hand it over to Professor Babbling to see if she can repair it. I ask both of you to assist her with the repairs anyway you can. If we succeed and find its twin, this cabinet can be quite useful to us."

They both nodded. Harry thought about how a pair of vanishing cabinets could be put to use. Of course, there were the hidden passages that he learned about from the Marauder's Map. He had seen to their repair months ago, but none of them exited very far from the school itself. If or when the need to evacuate came, there was no guarantee that any of those passages would lead to safety. This cabinet, on the other hand, its counterpart could be located almost anywhere, it could take one past wards and enemy forces without anyone knowing. It was just what they needed.

Dumbledore returned to the reason they were in this room today, "That's the last horcrux, Harsh. When can we exorcise them?"

Harsh spoke very deliberately when he answered, "Not yet, Albus. There is still the great snake, Nagini. Before we do this, she must be exposed. When we do this, it is certain to bring Tom down upon us with all the fury he can muster. We and the Ministry forces must prepare for the final battle before we do this thing. Let us train and prepare until Beltane. Then, at a time and place of our own choosing, we will use this to draw him out."

**A week later**

It was hard to believe that it had already been more than a week since The Battle of Hogsmead as it came to be known. Although the students who had survived the battle were healed of their physical hurts, the absence of their friends who had not been so fortunate was like a gaping wound. Not just the school but the entirety of Wizarding Britain mourned their loss. Parents buried their children. Students and teachers alike were absent from classes in droves as they attended the funerals of their friends. The Daily Prophet swelled in size as it carried the stories of every student who had died. Accounts and recollections were gathered from the parents, friends and other relatives of the departed ones. Unknown to Harry, the Harry Potter fan club had begun work on a comprehensive book of remembrance for all the casualties of the battle titled "Lest We Forget".

Albus discussed erecting a memorial in Hogsmead to honour the fallen. Frank answered him by saying, "When this war is won, we will erect a monument to all those who gave their lives to defeat Tom Riddle in both wars. For now, we need to focus all our efforts on preparing for the final battle."

There was also some talk about giving awards for bravery to those who had stood out during the battle. Albus replied by reminding the general that the very people they wanted to recognize wished to remain anonymous. So much for grand gestures and monuments. If Fudge were still around, he would have done it anyway to try and boost his public image, but Frank was all business.

16… 16 students were dead. All of them were members of The Order of the Snow leopard and ten of them fighters. The rest were killed, shielding students as they tried to evacuate the non-combatants. Their wands and suits of armour would lie unused. They didn't even have that armour with them for a day's outing in the village. It likely would have saved their lives if they had been wearing it during the battle. The parents who had found the armour among the affects of their children had returned it to Harry. With disbanding the order all together on his mind, Harry certainly wasn't going to recruit more students to wear it. He thought about giving the precious suits of basilisk hide armour to The Order of the Phoenix. They certainly had fighters who could use them.

At last, some things began to return to normal. The students were back in class. The fifth year and seventh year students were revising for their OWL and NEWT exams. The corridors and Great Hall were much more solemn than they had been just a week ago, but the staff and students were back to work.

As each of the healed students emerged from the hospital wing or returned from St. Mungo's, they were greeted with much fanfare and applause. Justin returned by floo to the Headmaster's office just before breakfast. Word spread to the Hufflepuffs the moment his visage, gleaming scalped spot on one side of his head and jagged scar on his other cheek, was spotted emerging from behind the gargoyle statue at the entrance to Dumbledore's office. Before he could make his way down the stairs, a mob of his housemates came boiling up the stairs and took him up on their shoulders. They pumped their fists in the air and chanted "JUSTIN. JUSTIN. JUSTIN!", as they carried him to their common room. They had the house elves serve them a feast fit for a hero before classes started for the day.

Harry greeted each returning hero as they entered The Great Hall. He thanked them for their bravery and asked after their health. People started to notice that the only time they saw Harry was during class or when he was greeting the returning students. Although more students than ever were taking exercise in the pre-dawn twilight out by the lake, Harry wasn't there. Hermione, Ron and Neville continued to drill the students mercilessly in the Room of Requirement every chance they got, but Harry wasn't there either. Some assumed that he was spending every available minute at Susan's side as she recovered, but Susan knew that was not true. For her part, she had assumed that Harry was spending all his time working with The Order of the Snow Leopard, drilling them for the next battle.

Cho was at all the practices. She hadn't got her full strength back yet but she drilled like a person possessed. During the sessions in the Room of Requirements, she drilled until she dropped. Every night the house elves took her back to her dorm where she slept like the dead until the next morning. Her determination to give payback for the death of her best friend drove her to improve faster than anyone else in the order.

Susan was the last casualty still in the hospital wing. Harry visited her every day, at least twice a day, but that wasn't where he was spending most of his time.

Ernie's injuries had been minor and He was treated and released the same day. When he was brought back into the hospital wing a few days later, Susan had thought that he was injured during a practice session. But when Madam Pomfrey and the visiting healer discussed his case, she overheard bits of their conversation. She picked out words like in 'shock', 'Miss Moon', 'under restraint', 'force feed nutrient potion'. The next time Harry came to visit her; she let him know who was in the bed behind the screen and why he was there.

Harry had a very short conversation with Madam Pomfrey but she wasn't going to tell Harry anything. He then tried the visiting healer, speaking rapidly in a language that Susan didn't understand. The healer responded in one short sentence that ended with "Moon".

Harry cast a privacy ward as he marched behind the screen. Nobody but Harry and Ernie heard the conversation.

When Harry laid eyes on his friend, he was taken aback. In just a few short days, the lad was already beginning to show visible signs of wasting away. At first, Harry thought he must have been hit with some kind of wasting spell and they missed it when he was treated. Drawing on what he learned while he studied with the Mystic healer, he drew his wand and ran some detection and diagnostic spells. No, there was no foul curse active here or poison or disease, just some really good binding charms. This young man was suffering with a broken spirit.

Harry pulled up a chair to sit by the head of Ernie's bed. Quietly, he said, "It's Lilith, isn't it?"

Slowly, Ernie turned his head toward Harry, "You get right to the point don't you mate?"

Harry allowed a bit of a smile, "Saves time. Doesn't it?"

Ernie nodded once slowly, "Harry, she was everything to me. There's just nothing left in this world that I can still care about. I just want to go and join her."

Harry shook his head, "Ernie, I can't even pretend that I know how you feel. But, there was a moment when I was sure Susan was dead. The next thing I knew, I woke up on a stretcher, in the hospital wing. Ernie, I'm told that I went berserk, killing everything in my path. I don't know how, but somehow, she wasn't gone. I don't know if I'd be any different from you, right now, if … if…" He trailed off.

Ernie looked at Harry with some understanding, "Mate, I think you know well enough."

Harry patted Ernie's hand, "I can't bring her back for you. I would if I could. But, I need you. The Potters and the MacMillans go back to before the time of the Vikings. I can't imagine fighting the final battle without you there. Besides, don't you want a chance to pay them back for what they did?"

Ernie nodded firmly, "You're right about that. It's just that I feel so … empty."

Harry said, "So long as the living remembers them, they are never truly gone. Honour her, Ernie. Keep her with you."

Ernie shook his head, "I… I don't know if I can. But I'll try. "

Harry gave him a firm pat on the shoulder, "That's all any of us can do."

With that, Harry took down the privacy ward and let the healer know that Ernie might take some food now.

He kissed Susan on the forehead and strode out of the hospital wing. There was no sound, but he seemed to vanish the moment he was beyond the door.

Susan had recovered well, or so she thought. She was getting restless, eager to get back to work. The healer was reluctant to let her go and he wasn't telling the reason why. At last, he relented saying only that she needed to be careful not to over exert herself when she used magic. There seemed to be a deep sorrow in his eyes as he advised her. His final instructions when he released her from the Hospital Wing were that she was to continue to come to Madam Pomfrey for potions twice per day until she said to stop. With that, he packed up his few things and headed for the gate to the castle.

**The Room of Requirement**

When Susan entered The Room of Requirement, the students were paired off, fighting duels. Ron, Hermione, Neville and Daphne were making the rounds, helping them with their blocking and dodging, but her emerald eyed betrothed was not there. Fred and George, who were busy trying to give each other rabbit ears, hooves , horns and the like, broke off what they were doing and came over to greet her.

"Glad to see…", said Fred.

"… you up and about", said George.

"We welcome you back into our ranks!", they said together.

Susan smiled as she pulled them both into a hug, "You two always make me laugh." Then she released them as she asked, "Where's my dashing young man?"

Fred and George both looked puzzled as they realized it was Susan asking about Harry. George said, "If he's not with you."

Fred finished, "We don't have a clue."

Susan's eyebrows went up as she remarked, "Oh really?"

Being curious about him, she drew her wand and tapped out a message on her wand holster, "Meeting in the RoR. Where are you?"

It was another minute before her holster heated up and the response came back, "I will be there in ten minutes."

Completely unsatisfied with Harry's answer, Susan began to take her frustrations out on a practice dummy. She was supposed to be in her dorm, resting but, this was Susan after all.

**The Chamber of Secrets**

Harry was blasting away with at least 20 practice dummies at once. These weren't the stationary things that just fired a spell as they recharged, these things were fully animated monsters that dodged, shielded, cast random spells at random intervals. As soon as Harry managed to destroy one, another one would spawn to take up the fight. None of the practice dummy spells were deadly, there was no need for that, but each one was colour coded to represent a different deadly curse. Some could not be shielded. Some could not be dodged and some could not be blocked. The purpose of this exercise was to keep straight what was what and use the correct defence for each one, no matter how many came at him at once. In a real battle, one slip could make the difference between victory and death. Harry was surrounded by a black aura, rapidly firing spell chains from both wands at once when his wand holster heated up. He thought it was likely Neville or Hermione asking him to come to practice again, so he didn't answer it right away.

Harsh emerged from the shadows and spoke, "Young Lord Peverell."

Harry did not take his eyes off the practice dummies or faulter in his timing for even a split second. With a flick of the wand in his left hand, he silenced all of the practice dummies at once. The smoke and dust continued to swirl about the room. With another gesture, Harry cleared the air. He emerged from the dark mist, breathing hard, glistening with sweat. He had been practicing for over an hour and not one of the dummies had managed to score a hit. He checked his wand holster and sent his terse reply before he put his wands away and bowed, "Guruji, what may I do for you."

"I have come to ask, young war mage, why you are hiding from your friends?", Harsh spoke in his low, gentle tone.

Harry gestured to the room where the practice dummies were arranged, "Not hiding, Guruji, practicing. I need to be better."

The leader of the mystics scanned the wreckage and dust from more than a hundred practice dummies strewn among the ones that were still in one piece. He commented, "I believe your skill to be sufficient for the task. And…" he paused before continuing, "your friends need you."

Harry surveyed the room. He thought back to what he was able to do before he trained in the mountains of India with his mystic friends. Finally, he had to admit to himself and to his master, "You're right, of course. This is not training. I just don't know what to say to them. I drilled them over and over again on how to dodge and block spells. I taught them everything I could to help them stay alive. And then, what did they do?", He turned to the old mystic with the tears overflowing from his eyes, "The idiots block deadly spells with their bodies!". He wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand, "That's not noble or brave. It's just stupid. So many of them died. So many more of them were hurt. And Susan… She could have… She almost…" Harry couldn't bring himself to say the words.

The Lord of the mystics who had lost more friends in battle than Harry knew, nodded his understanding, "Yes, Harry. I know how you feel. I would, however, remind you that there is a time to be hard and a time to show love. Remember that when you speak with your friends. Also remember that none of your practices were like a battle which you faced in the village so they were bound to make mistakes". Then he gestured at Harry's holster, "I think that Susan is waiting to see you. Don't waste one minute that you can spend with her. Time may be more precious than you think."

Harry asked his master pointedly, "Guruji, do you know something that you're not telling me?"

The mystic chuckled, "Of that you can be certain. Now I send you to her, but before I do, I must take my leave of you. There are matters in Africa which require my personal attention."

Harry nodded sombrely, "I am sorry to see you go. Thank-you again. For everything."

The old mage nodded, "It is no more or less than what Mother Magic requires of me." With that, the leader of the mystics simply vanished.

It took Harry about another 30 seconds to make himself presentable. The next moment, he strode into the Room of requirement.

**The Room of Requirement**

The practice session was winding down. Cho had already been taken off to bed by the house elves and most of the other students had wandered off to their common rooms. Susan was still there along with Daphne, Ron, Neville and Hermione. Ginny was duelling two on one with the twins and giving them a good workout. When Harry entered, he found Susan first, "Sue? Was it you who sent that message?"

Suzan peppered him with stingers, "Yes!", _zap_, "that", _zap_, "was", _zap_, "me!". She continued on, _zap_, "Where", _zap_, "have", _zap_, "you", _zap_, "been", _zap_, "hiding?"

Harry carefully dodged the stingers, trying his best to give the impression that he was jumping around in pain while the spells hit the loose folds of his robes. Sometimes, true love hurts. He had to work hard to keep the smile from his face at seeing his Sue back to her old self. He thought he'd better make a stab at apologizing for whatever she might be upset about.

"I'm sorry Sue. I wasn't hiding, I've just been really busy", he said, not quite honestly.

She huffed in indignation, "Not with these people you haven't. I know because I asked them. They haven't seen you at a work-out or a practice in over a week. I thought you were looking after your Order and they thought you were fawning over me. So where, Oh Great Chosen One, have you been!?"

Harry glanced around the room to see that all activity had stopped and they were all waiting to hear his answer.

He looked around for a place to sit. Of course, this was the Room of Requirement so there was a convenient circle of chairs that wasn't there a minute ago. He waved people over to invite them into the conversation. Once they were all sitting, he began, "To be honest, I've been brooding."

Ron interjected, "Brooding!? We've been working our butts off and you've been off sulking somewhere! I can't believe it!"

Harry grinned at him, "For me, brooding involves 20 of the nastiest practice dummies I can animate."

Ron's eyes went wide and his mouth formed an, "Oh!", as he recalled his last practice session with just one of Harry's specials.

Harry continued, "Look, I know that every single one of us here is mourning the loss of at least one dear friend. I saw the mess that Ernie is. But, do any of you know what it's like to feel personally responsible for every single one of those deaths?"

He scanned around to see that every one of them was thinking about it.

Susan spoke, "I'm sorry, Harry I didn't think…"

Harry looked into his betrothed's eyes and said, "No, Sue. I didn't talk to you about it. I thought you had quite enough to get along with, being injured and all. I didn't want you worrying about me."

Several responses went through Susan's mind as the emotions chased each other across her features. What could she say? After all, Harry wasn't the only one keeping secrets here. Finally, she had to admit that she hadn't been in any condition to take on any more drama since the battle. When she spoke, it was to try and honour his gesture, "Yes, my love, I understand. But we are all here for you now."

Harry smiled a sad smile at the bright, shining centre of his world. No words could express his gratitude. He took a deep breath before addressing the gathering, "Every one of you have been and are more brave, more loyal, more understanding than I could have ever hoped. I owe it to all of you to tell you how I really feel."

He stood up and started pacing the room, "16 of our friends are gone. The losses are huge, staggering, overwhelming. To me, it still doesn't seem real. It's too many. They were too young. What was I thinking? Drilling my class mates like we're some sort of army or something. When it came down to the real thing, so many just weren't ready. I… I can't do this anymore. You owe it to the people you care about to stay alive! You can't throw life, any life, your life away like that."

He sat down again, hard, thumping his fist on the arm of his chair to emphasize each word, "I'm disbanding the order. I won't use any more of my friends for human shields. The Order is done!"

That was when Hermione spoke up, "'Human shields'? Is that all you think we've accomplished here? You listen up, Harry and listen well." She sat up straight as she took a deep breath. "Last week, the village of Hogsmead was attacked by about 80 trained, disciplined death eaters. They had a plan. They had the element of surprise. They set up wards to keep help from arriving and they attacked when most of the garrison had been called away to another battle. Their plan was to round us up and slaughter us like so many cattle to break the will of Wizarding Britain and bring the entire nation to their knees." She paused to let the immensity and villainy of the plot sink in. Then she continued, "And we stopped them. We didn't just stop them, we handed them their hindquarters on a platter and sent them running. We could not have done that if we hadn't been training like a bunch of maniacs under your leadership, Harry. Instead of counting the dead, you need to count the life of every single student that survived that attack as one person who would have been dead but for your training. Everyone in the order and many more owe you a life debt. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself and get back to what you do best!"

Neville just looked on in awe. Daphne seemed to have breathed in new life. Susan nodded her head in affirmation. Ron, being Ron, said, "Couldn't have said it better myself, mate."

Susan spoke up, "She's right, my love. We need you to lead us. Failing to do so will only cause more deaths, more losses, more heartache. When you look at it like that, there is really only one way to go."

Daphne said, "I know it weighs heavy on you, Harry. I know you didn't ask for it, but this is your lot. None of us can do it for you."

Finally, Neville said, "Brother, whatever you decide, I'm there for you."

The twins and Ginny held their peace. Looking around the gathering, seeing the resolve on every face, Harry had to reconsider. These weren't foolish romantics with delusions of glory, laud and honour or invincibility against a scary but mostly harmless foe. These were people who had been through real battle, lost loved ones and seen death. And yet, they wanted to fight on. They wanted to support him. This was part of what it means to be the chosen one. To put them in harm's way was evil, but to leave them in harm's way with no way to defend themselves when he could make a difference, that was worse. This was the burden of leadership.

At length, Harry said, "Alright. I'll be there, starting tomorrow morning." Turning to Sue he asked, "Walk you back to your common room, Sue?"

Sue said, "I'll see you there in the morning, my love. You can take me to breakfast. I would like to sit and chat with Daphne for a while."

Harry barely let his surprise show. He stood and gallantly bowed to take and kiss the hand of his betrothed before he lead the rest of the gathering out the door.

As soon as they were gone, Susan sagged in her chair, her colour gone. She said weakly to Daphne, "Daph, I've overdone it. How can I get back to my dorm?"

Daphne cast a critical eye over her friend then cast a few quick diagnostic spells, "Sue, You're dangerously exhausted. I should get you to Madam Pomfrey immediately."

Sue waved her off, "No. She can't do anything for me. I just need some rest."

Daphne asked, "Are you sure? It looks like you're in a bad state."

Susan gave her a firm look, "I'm not sleeping another night in that wretched hospital wing. I promise, I'll check in with Madam Pomfrey in the morning, after I've had a good night's sleep in my own bed."

Daphne acquiesced, "OK. I'll do the same thing we do for Cho". She called to the air, "Blinkey!"

A house elf, dressed in the livery of the Hogwarts tea towel popped into the room, "Yes, Miss Ice Queen? How be's Blinkey serving you?"

Daphne hardly cringed at the House elf's use of the nick-name. She said, "Please get Heiress Bones to her bed. She needs her rest."

Blinkey curtsied once then taking Susan by the hand, the two of them disappeared with a louder pop.

**By the Lake, Hogwarts**

Neville lead the students through the knee deep snow to the side of the lake. There was a lot on the ground but it wasn't difficult going because the training sessions of previous days had trampled the snow into a hard-packed trail. It was still February and there was enough ice on the lake to be safe for skating. In the dim pre-dawn twilight, Neville thought he made out someone swimming, yes, swimming from one side to the other at an amazing speed. There was a strip of open water, no more than five feet wide, that stretched from shore to shore and there was his god-brother swimming laps like it was the middle of July!

As the other students began to assemble and start their stretches, Harry emerged from the water, dripping wet and grinning. A giant tentacle rose out of the water and waved. Harry waved back as he dried himself off. In another minute, he was dressed in his sweats and ready to lead the workout.

Harry rapidly went through the gathered students, pointing at each one in turn, counting, "One, two, one, two, on…" When he was done he said, "Alright. Listen up. If you are a one, it is your turn to run laps. If you are a two, it is your turn to stop the ones running by any means you can contrive. One's, if you are tackled, if you are hit by a spell, you are out. You will sit out the rest of the round. Two's, when we you have eliminated all but the last one the round is over. You will then switch places and start again. When we are done", Harry grinned, "We will run off between the best from each group and the rest of us will stop them. Winner gets", Harry produced a giant chocolate bar from inside his robes, "a giant bar of Honeyduke's finest." He looked around as the mesmerized students beheld the coveted confection then he said, "Go."

There was mayhem as the students drew their wands and started zapping each other. A few of the One's got themselves sorted out and dashed off around the shore of the lake. More than half of them were eliminated before they even got off the starting line. After a couple of laps, it was down to Fred and Neville. They jigged and jogged around everything the Two's could throw at them. Then Tracy blew Fred a kiss. While he was distracted, Daphne zapped his backside with a stinger and he was out. The next round, a lot more survivors got past the starting line. After a couple of laps, it was down to Pucey, Ron and George. When George had a spell coming at him, he conjured giant mushrooms that exploded into a cloud of confetti when the spells hit them. Ron was manoeuvring So that there were obstacles between him and the casters. His dodging was also getting really good. Pucey was so smooth and fluid that it looked like he was flying on a broom rather than running. Harry pointed them out, "That's what I'm talking about! No two of them are using the same technique but all three of them are effective. George is going to tire first. His conjuring is highly effective and the chaff from the exploding mushrooms is giving him extra cover, but that technique is going to wear him out. Now Ron, what he's doing works well, so long as there's available cover. Then there's Pucey. His dodging is really smooth."

As the racing trio passed by Harry, he zapped all three of them with a wide-area stunner. Pucey and Ron tumbled to the ground, unconscious. George, who had popped up a shield in a split second, was declared the winner of the round.

Harry revived Ron and Pucey, "Sorry, mates. You forgot to use shields."

The final round was between Dumbledore's apprentice and one half of the best pranking team in the school. It seemed like an uneven contest, but George's ability to improvise seemed endless. Neville's reflexes were blindingly quick. He was choosing between dodging, blocking and shielding correctly every time. Some spells that he judged to be just plain cheeky, he swatted them away into the crowds of the casters. As a result, the crowd of people casting spells at the racing duo thinned out a bit. George was doing really well, but in the end, he collapsed to the ground, exhausted, just as Harry said would happen.

Harry said, "Well done, everyone! But I only brought one bar. Congratulations, Neville."

Most of the students clapped and cheered as Harry handed over the prize. Fred and George made cat calls, yelling things like "fixed.", and rigged", while laughing uproariously.

"Alright!", said Harry as the cheering died down, "Everyone, three more laps around the lake and I'll see you in the Room of Requirement after dinner."

**Room of Requirement**

After dinner, the students filed into the Room of Requirement. It seemed bigger than they remembered it. One of the first things they saw as they entered, was a wall, covered with photos of the 16 students that had died in the Battle of Hogwarts. Many among them wondered what Harry was about, reminding all of them about their recent loss like that. Ernie just stood in front of the picture of Lilith as if he was transfixed. At length, a change came over him and he marched up to Harry like a man on a mission.

He demanded, "Did you do this, Peverell?"

Harry responded in a neutral tone, "I will explain everything when the rest get here."

Ernie growled, "You'd better."

Without exception, the students stopped at the wall and took some time to view the smiling, waving figures in the pictures. There were very few dry eyes in the gathering. Some glared at Harry like, "This better be good."

Harry addressed them in a brusque tone, "I hope that all of you have taken the time to look at the photos on your way in. Yes, I want you to feel their absence. I want you to think about how you feel every time you miss them. And then, I want you to deeply consider how every person who cares about you would feel if it were your picture on that wall."

He paused to let them ponder it for a few minutes.

He paced up and down in front of the students when he began to speak again, "When we started this, I told you that I would only accept your service if you promised to do what I say. In return, I promised that I would teach you everything I can to help you stay alive. All those students are dead, their promising lives, everything that they could ever be, cut short, their loved ones bereaved. They were our friends. They were my friends. WE have lost a part of ourselves that will never come back."

He stopped pacing and turned to face the group, "I tried to disband the Order of the Snow Leopard last night because so many of us died. Ultimately, I am responsible for every one of you and those deaths", He pointed to the wall, "weigh on me so heavily, that I wished it was me instead of them."

It was Daphne that spoke up this time, "Yes, Harry, we know. And that is why we follow you. You can never be like Tom. He treats his followers like chattel, throwing them away at a whim. You will never do that. And that is why we will win."

The rest of the students murmured their agreement.

Harry responded, a lot more gently this time, "Thank-you Daphne, all of you, for that. But it doesn't make leading you any easier."

He straightened up again, "The point I'm trying to get at is this: Many of our friends are dead because they tried to shove their friends away from a spell meant for someone else."

Harry paused while the students reacted. Some shrugged, some muttered, "I was there wasn't I?" A few uttered the name of the one that saved them. Daphne and sue gave each other a significant glance.

Harry growled into the silence. "You can block, you can conjure, you can summon. I know you can because I taught you, here, in this room. I've seen all of you do it." He paused while they recalled the endless drilling. Then he drove his point home, "Shoving someone away from the path of a spell does not make you noble or brave or anything else like that. It just makes you dead. Think about your loved ones. It might sound noble and honourable in stories of knights in shining armours but in real life...", he gestured to the wall covered with the photos of their dead friends. He stopped pacing to face his friends, "Trading one life for another is no gain for our side. It doesn't serve you and it places a terrible burden of guilt on the person you save." He looked around the gathering again as the students stomachs began to do flip-flops. Then he continued, "If you have enough time to shove someone away from a spell, you have more than enough time to do something that will save your friend without throwing away your own life.".

By this time, Susan was cringing. She knew it wasn't all about her, but she felt all of the anger behind Harry's words was all directed at her. During the next pause, she whispered to Daphne, "I'm not feeling well." And she left the room to report to the infirmary.

Harry failed to notice Susan leaving the room. He continued, "Pair up everyone. You will be fighting practice dummies. They will cast spells, colour coded to represent every deadly spell that was used in the battle last week. Your job is to stop those spells from hitting your partner. You are not allowed to shield, block or dodge for yourself. That is not the purpose of this exercise. If I catch any of you diving in front of spells or any other stupidity, you're out and I mean out of the Order. I won't have that going on ever again. Am I clear?"

The students paired up and each chose a group of dummies to fight. There were five dummies in each group. The spells flew fast and furious. It took a few tries before they got it right, but Harry, Neville, Fred and George, were all helping the students to get into a routine. Some of the students got their robes spattered with the colour spells and they stung a bit, but it was much better than the real thing. Shields, flocks of canaries, Small flying items, rocks filled the air, soaring in every direction. At the end of an hour, Harry was satisfied that he had driven his point home.

With a gesture from Harry's wand, the practice dummies fell silent. He gathered everyone around, "Not bad. Not bad at all. From now on, half an hour of this drill is going to be part of every practice session. I will, of course, change it up as you improve. I can see by the spatters on your robes, that around half of you are dead. That's awful, but I did see that all of you improved once you got the idea. Alright, now I'm going to show you a little something I picked up while I was training with the Aurors." He looked around the room before he continued, "This spell is quite deadly and its use is restricted. It requires pin-point accuracy and you will have to practice long and hard before you can use it in combat."

Du Vant, his headwound still bandaged, asked, "Why don't you teach us the spells you used in the battle, Harry? We can all do with learning those spells."

Harry shook his head, "I'm not going to waste everybody's time explaining all the reasons I can't do that. You'll just have to take it on faith that it can't be done. The piercing hex, on the other hand, is something that anyone can master if they work at it. As I was saying, the use of this spell is restricted. Since it is deadly when used properly, the Ministry takes a dim view of it being used casually. However, used in self-defence, against a deadly foe, that is quite another matter."

Harry showed them the wand movement and incantation for the hex. These students were eager learners. In less than ten minutes, they had the theory and wand movement down. They spent the rest of the hour working on accuracy. It was rough going but most of the students were at least able to hit their target by the end of the session.

It was getting close to curfew when Harry called a halt to the practice. "Alright, off with the lot of you. I'll see you by the lake in the morning."

Albus had been hiding under a disillusionment charm the entire time. He nodded his satisfaction and carefully blended in with the students as he exited the room.

Thinking to escort Susan to her common room, Harry looked around and noticed that Susan wasn't there.

As Daphne headed toward the door, Harry tapped her on the shoulder, "Daph, do you know where Susan is?"

She shook her head, "Wow, Harry. For someone who can track ten people casting spells at you in one go, you sure miss some important stuff. I don't know for sure but she told me she wasn't feeling well and ducked out early on. You might try Madame Pomfrey.".

**Hospital Wing**

Susan was just exiting when Harry came to the door. Susan surprised him at the doorway, "Susan? Are you OK?" She smiled up at him, "You have a funny way of asking to walk a girl to her common room, young man."

Harry caught wrong-footed for the second time in less than a minute, quickly recovered, "Of course, my lady. May I have the honour of escorting you to your common room? He extended his arm for her to take.

Sue smiled impishly, "That's better. We just might make a gentleman of you yet."

Sue never once faltered or complained, but to Harry, it seemed she was walking a little slower and that she leaned on him a bit more than usual. They talked about how the practice session went, how things were going to change there from now on. Every time Harry tried to turn the conversation to Susan's health, she just said that she was fine and started talking about something else.

**Hestia's hearth**

"Do you understand your task?", asked Moody of Mr. O'Neil.

Moody had come to visit him under Frank's orders. The ministry had decided to keep their forces close and not venture out but they were keeping an eye on the world yonder through the muggle-born network. The muggle born would watch things and if something required the ministry's intervention, they would promptly inform the ministry. Doing this freed up the Aurors to train and drill instead of spending endless hours on patrol.

Mr. O'Neil's task was to keep a track of everyone in his circle and to ensure that they never risked their lives. Unknown to the death-eaters, this clandestine restaurant in the heart of muggle London was going to become the central hub of intelligence for the faction of the light.

"Yes I understand perfectly, Mr. Moody", he replied "I already have a functioning network. They cover all of Muggle London and many of the magical areas. They don't risk their lives but keep themselves to informing the ministry. In other words, we will be the ministry's eyes and ears. We'll leave it up to the Aurors to be the Ministry's boot."

Moody nodded, "If some of your clients are in the habit of visiting Knockturn Alley or the taverns there, tell them to keep their ears open for any sort of gossip going on there. Sometimes, we can learn a lot from listening to a drunk at the next table."

**Greece**

"You understand, boy?", asked Abbadon of Voldemort.

Voldemort nodded, "Yes master. I am grateful to you for teaching me this spell for now I have some hope of winning against him."

Abbadon growled, "You will never understand what I have done for you teaching you this spell but as your master, it was all that I could do. Now listen closely for I will not repeat myself. Giving you the knowledge of this spell, I give my life into your hands."

"Master!", Voldemort exclaimed "You will surely live long."

Abbadon growled, "Stop trying to butter me up, boy. I am more ancient than you know. I am weary. I've lived quite long enough. This spell has always been my last resort when I fought with my nemesis. Giving it to you is giving up my last weapon to you."

"Your nemesis?"

"Yes boy! Those who trained the boy as the champion of light are our enemies. Their leader is my nemesis. I have fought him many times, using this spell to fight him. Giving it to you means that I am giving up the last arrow in my quiver."

"But can't you use it again, master?"

"Meaningless. Worthless. I have given you all of my followers. When you fight the last battle, they will find you and augment your power with theirs. They of course don't know what the spell will do to them. But since I am giving everything to you including my former apprentices or followers, I am empty now. This time when my nemesis comes for me, I will die. I warn you, do not tarry. Take the boy on as soon as you can. While he gains strength, they are hunting down my followers."

"Master!", Voldemort exclaimed, "What do you mean?"

He said sourly, "Yesterday Ionut Anastese was killed in Romania. It is reported that he died of poisoning but I know he never left his home without taking an antidote. He was killed by a special poison which leaves no marks on the victim's body and has no antidote. I have no delusions that they will not be going after my other followers so make haste in whatever you do."

"Master, how may I repay this debt?", Voldemort asked with a fake trace of sympathy.

Abbadon slapped him again, "You don't need to pretend to warm up to me, boy. I know you revel in the fact that you will get more followers while you won't have to worry about me. Now be gone and let it be known that a teacher chose to die for his apprentice."


	20. Chapter 20

**A week later - London**

The tension in the air was palpable, even to the muggles. Although things seemed to be quiet, they were too quiet. It seemed as if they were collectively waiting for something to happen. Something that would shake and change the destiny of the world. The muggles didn't know what it was but the wizards knew.

Since the declaration of Blood war, both sides had gone quiet. The Ministry was silent and so were the death eaters. Their record showed that they had always retaliated when the Aurors gave them a bloody nose, but for now, they seemed to have vanished. The ministry was not making any noises or issuing any statements but a few of them knew that the Aurors were breaking down doors of death eater suspects and known sympathisers. Just last week, Rolondo Lestrange had been dragged away from his ancestral home. It had caused a lot of hue and cry in the Wizengamot for he was a Lord but the General had showed them proof that he was in contact with his sons, Rabbastan and Rudolphus. They were two of the few surviving members of Voldemort's coveted Inner circle.

Rolondo had been interrogated at length by Robards. In fact Frank had insisted that Moody not be allowed near the Lestrange lord for he surely would kill him before getting any useful information out of him. After they dosed Lestrange with Veritaserum, he sang like a canary though they were sorely disappointed to find that he was not as conversant with the death eater secrets as they had hoped.

Avery's son was also arrested inside a shady inn in Knockturn Alley where he was found in conversation with two marked death eaters. These were lowly death eaters, newly recruited. No one suspected them of turning out to be such. They were able to evade the Aurors until they blabbed about it in the inn and a wizard overheard them. This wizard was one of the muggleborn belonging to O'Neil's network. He passed word to the ministry. Five Aurors under Rufus Bartley's squad had stormed the inn and took them before they could even get their wands out. Later Bartley confessed that he had been disappointed for he wanted them to fight back and get killed.

There were some attacks but they were isolated events that caused no major damage. One was an attack on the stadium of a minor quidditch league team. They only managed to set a few of the seats in the stands on fire before the very irate members of the quidditch team took them down. The entire team was still grinning when they turned the vandals, looking a lot worse for wear, over to the Aurors.

Another had happened where a wizarding family had sensed the attack as soon as it began. The two death eaters did not stand a chance for the wizarding family had a family reunion going on. When faced with 6 against the two, there was only one way that it could go.

The Room of Requirement had been taken over by Dumbledore who had ordered it off limits for all the members of the school while elves went through the room and sorted the items in the room of hidden things. A few Unspeakables had been called in from the Department of mysteries to help them sort through and to confiscate any object which radiated dark magic. If something was found which personally belonged to someone, it was duly returned. If any article had belonged to someone in the past, Dumbledore decided to return it to their family. It would not be much but it would hold sentimental value for them.

There was another incident though no one save a few people in the ministry knew about it. The Vanishing Cabinet found at Hogwarts had been examined by Professor Babbling who had set it up for repair at once. She had enlisted Neville and Harry for they could be useful to her. Harry because he was quite knowledgeable in Warding by now and Neville because he could perform the complicated spells for her with ease even if he was not as proficient in Runes yet.

She inspected the cabinet with delight. After using a lot of detection spells and recording her findings, she turned to the duo, "This cabinet will require the rune work to be done again. When it was broken, most of the wards or enchantments which exist on it were also broken save for the one which connects it to its partner, though I won't advise trying that."

Harry asked her, "So what do you suggest, Professor?"

"Mr. Peverell, there was a series of Runes or wards that we will have to re-draw on this. We can use more wards than were used previously to make it better and more durable."

They both nodded and she continued, "We need to make a ward cluster which will have several wards in it."

She explained to them the wards that they would need to do on the cabinet while they listened intently. After she was done, Harry assisted her in drawing the cluster on parchment before trying it for real. This way, they could avoid any mishaps. It took them two days before they managed to get the cluster right. After they were successful, it took them another day before they could determine how much power it really needed.

Finally, after 5 days it was finished. Harry wanted to jump in immediately and get to the other side but Professor Babbling caught his arm, "Are you an idiot, Mr. Peverell?"

He said apprehensively, "No, Professor".

"Then pray tell me why were you going to jump in without thinking first? We don't know where its partner is or what kind of place that is. What if you end up among a group of death eaters or in sum dungeons from which you cannot escape or may be at the bottom of the sea?"

He nodded thoughtfully, "I see your point, Professor. I will get the Aurors to go in and check it."

She smiled appreciatively, "That will do. Now would you like to take it away?"

Smiling he shrunk the cabinet, pocketed it and left. He straight away went to Dumbledore who was in his office reading Helena Ravenclaw's journal. When Harry entered, he looked up and guided him to a seat across from him, "Take a seat, Harry. Now what brings you here?"

"Professor, we have repaired the vanishing cabinet. We need to find where its brother is. I was thinking it would be wise to ask for a few Aurors from the ministry because we don't know what we will find on the other side."

Dumbledore stood up from his chair and walked to the fireplace, picking up a pinch of the floo powder from the cannister on the mantle. Throwing it into the fire, he called, "Office of the Head Auror, Ministry of Magic."

A second later, Alastor Moody's face was visible in the fire, "What do you want, Albus?"

"We need five Aurors for a special mission as soon as you can manage, Alastor."

About a minute later, Alastor Moody stepped out of the fireplace followed by Sirius Black, Nymphadora Tonks, Hestia Jones and to his surprise, Kingsley Shacklebolt. Kingsley had been stationed in the office of the muggle Prime Minister but after the battle of Hogsmeade, he had insisted on being put back in the ministry.

Alastor growled, "What are we to do?"

On a gesture from the Headmaster, Harry withdrew the vanishing cabinet from his robes and restored it to its natural size. Dumbledore pointed out the cabinet to them, "This is a Vanishing Cabinet we found in the school. Its partner is somewhere out there and we were going to look for it. We don't know what we may run into so I want you all to be with us while we go and investigate."

Moody immediately went into action, "You should remain here, Albus. We (motioning to the Aurors and Harry) are sufficient for what may be at the other end. If you don't hear from any of us within the next 5 minutes, you can come find us."

Albus reluctantly agreed.

Moody turned to his Aurors, "Kingsley and Hestia you two will go first at intervals of 2 minutes followed by the lad. Sirius and I will bring up the rear. Start securing the place as soon as you reach the other side."

Harry however had a different idea. Before Hestia or Kingsley could act, he stepped into the cabinet pulling the door shut behind him. In the next second, the sounds outside the cabinet had changed. Instead of the dismayed cries of Sirius and Moody, he could hear two other adults in nearly whispered conversation. Exercising just a bit of caution, Harry opened the door, just a crack, and put his ear to the opening to listen, hoping to get a clue to his current location.

He caught snippets of conversation, "…The Dark Lord could return any day now… Too many killed… You may be called upon to serve, Burke."

The sound of the name 'Burke' made him alert at once. A memory came to his mind from years ago. The first time he had attempted Floo Travel, he ended up in Borgins and Burke's shop in Knockturn Alley because he had not said the address clearly. The same Burke who was apparently on the other side was also dealing with Lucius Malfoy who wanted to sell some dark objects on that day. He realised he must be in Knockturn Alley and he relaxed.

He transformed to his snow leopard form then nonchalantly walked out of the cabinet as if it was normal for him. The wizards who saw the door opening did not see anyone walk out at first. The one who had been talking asked, "Is that door defective or something? I saw it opening on its own twice in the last minute."

Burke frowned, "No one knows why this was placed here or who sold it. I guess it had some enchantments on it but I never sought to inspect it too closely..."

He was interrupted mid-sentence when the snow-leopard emerged from the cabinet. Burke asked the other, "Did I have one firewhiskey too many or do you also see the big cat there?"

The other wizard could not even speak out of fear and a pungent smell indicated that he may have soiled himself. The snow leopard however walked up to them, purring and started sniffing them. The other wizard had started to shake by now and broke into sobs at the thought of death lingering over his head.

Burke started to go for his wand but the movement was not missed by Harry. With a casual flick of his mighty paw, he knocked Burke out of his chair and flat on the ground. He put one of his paws on Burke's chest and growled making him tremble.

The other wizard who had been frozen in his place due to terror had tried to walk away taking advantage of the distraction but he found a black dog the size of a huge mastiff guarding the door. His hand crept toward the inner pocket of his cloak and the dog lunged at him, grabbing the hand and leaving teeth marks on it.

Alastor Moody, who had come by now, stunned that one and Burke. Nymphadora who had followed him noticed the Snow leopard and shrieked in fright. Sirius, who had transformed back hit her with a silencing charm and turned to the snow-leopard, "Transform before the others arrive and see you pup."

Harry transformed and Sirius lifted the silencing spell off Nymphadora who looked incredulous, "He. He. He is a leopard!"

Sirius chuckled, "Yes we saw that. Now be quiet and don't breathe a word about it to a single soul."

By the time Kingsley and Hestia arrived, the situation was under control. The two who had been stunned were bound and taken captive while Moody was shrinking the wardrobe to take with him to Hogwarts.

**Headmaster's Office**

"This will help us a great deal", said Dumbledore enthusiastically, "This will help us to transport Aurors from the ministry to the school without anyone being any wiser about it."

"Professor, can't we get more of them and put them at different safe houses so that we can evacuate students without the hassle?", Harry asked him.

"That would be a wonderful idea, Harry but it won't work for a lot of reasons. First the secret of making these cabinets lies with the Thornton family. This is their proprietary magic. They moved out some time ago to settle in the U.S. after the Grindelwald war while a branch remained here. They faced a few losses in the first war and fled the country to never return. I would also mention that they do not have any love lost for this place so we can't expect them to be warm towards us. As far as I can gleam, making of these cabinets involves enchanting the wood before the construction starts. When it is made then the rune cluster is applied which enables it to function. We have just this one pair of cabinets. We will need a lot of safe houses if we are to evacuate students and keep them there. I don't have to explain how it would not be possible to use it. It'd better serve us to keep it at the ministry."

Harry reluctantly nodded, "That means that we will have to make do with what we have."

**Great Hall**

When Harry entered the Great Hall after leaving Dumbledore's office, Angelina was waiting for him. As she saw him, she almost ran towards him, yelling at the top of her voice, "Quidditch practice after dinner this evening."

Harry groaned. He had almost forgotten that Quidditch season was due to start any day now. Apparently when Angelina saw that they could run through the snow in the morning, she got the bright idea that they should be able to practice quidditch too. He noticed that Angelina hadn't walked away but was waiting for his answer expectantly and nodded, "I will be there but the next match is ages away."

She had the maniacal gleam in her eye that Wood often did, "Harry, I want to win the cup this year under my captaincy. We can take no chances. We have to start practicing today."

With great difficulty, Harry was able to make her rein in her enthusiasm, "Alright, we will all be there."

Angelina however had given him a lot to think over. As they had tentatively agreed, the final battle was slated for some time in May which meant that if the castle was damaged then there would be no classes or Quidditch until it was repaired which might take months. He understood from his studies that magical buildings can't be built in a day because there is a lot that goes into them.

First there was the basic structure. Unlike muggles, they could use magic to levitate massive stone blocks into place without the benefit of heavy machinery. The blocks could be subtly reshaped to stack neatly and form together so that mortar was not needed to prevent drafts or bond the stone together. A bit of tricky business to be sure, but a wizard or goblin mason could lay a course of ten ton stone blocks as easily as a muggle mason could lay a course of brick. Enchantments and wards were worked into the ground and the foundation to prevent settling, water infiltration and shifting. One might think that using magic and working with such large blocks, the construction would go quickly, but wizard built castles were built to last and that took time. Then there was the framing. Timbers that had to last for thousands of years had to be large, heavy and heavily enchanted. Additional wards made it impossible for ordinary fires to catch and protected the timbers from the ravages of drying out over time and disintegrating. The structure of Hogwarts was as sound as the day the founders had laid it down. Any repair work would have to be just as good. Then there was no limit to how fussy and detailed the finish work could get. Even after all that, there were various and sundry wards and enchantments in practically every piece of the castle. Harry had seen some of the ward scheme around Hogwarts. If they were damaged, it would be the work of weeks just to determine how to go about restoring them without the whole thing blowing up. The rune clusters, the ward stones, it just went on and on. Then there were things like The Chamber of Secrets, the Room of Requirement, the enchanted ceiling in The Great Hall, Harry doubted if there was anyone still alive that could reproduce that work. If this place were badly damaged or destroyed, even with the services of the finest craftsmen in all of Wizarding Britain, they might never fully restore it. Well, they would just have to fight the final battle without wrecking the place.

"What are you thinking, my love?", asked Susan from the Gryffindor table and he realised that he had walked over to the Gryffindor table while mulling over repairs and what went into it.

"Angelina," he sighed, "She is channelling Wood again. She wants all of us down at the Quidditch pitch this evening."

She nodded, "That's not a very hard thing for you to do, is it? I mean you love Quidditch. Since we are not practicing in the Room of Requirement for the time being, you can go and practice."

He nodded, "I know but I'm thinking about the final battle."

Her ears perked up, "When? When will it be?"

All of his friends were leaning in to listen and he gave a look to Neville who raised a ward around them with a flick of his wand. After he was sure that no one else would be able to hear them, he started speaking, "For now, we don't have any fixed date but the idea is to have it sometime after Beltane. We are taking that long because we need that time for us to prepare."

"We will be ready in time, Harry", said Daphne. "Why are you worried about it?"

Harry looked at Hermione and Ron while he spoke, "It is almost certain that the castle will be damaged in the battle and maybe the Quidditch field too. With the castle and Quidditch field destroyed, I fear we will have to go without them for months. We may not even be able to hold OWLs or NEWTs here in addition to the remaining matches for the Quidditch Cup."

"No exams?", Hermione said loudly, "How can there be no exams? Is it sort of a tradition that we have no exams every now and then at the end of the year?"

Ron had other concerns, "You are mental, mate. Quidditch can't be cancelled."

Harry smirked, "I don't want it to be cancelled either, Ron. We will just have to see. I would rather that we lift the cup again before we take on Tom and his band of fools."

Neville had other concerns, "Harry, since the Headmaster has taken over our training room, how are we going to train? As far as we know, that room will take months to clear out. If we have a battle on our hands in two months, I would like to be prepared and in top form."

This was a real issue. They had nowhere to train with the Room of Requirement being taken over by the Headmaster. The Mermaid's Sanctuary was a private place for Neville to practice and he couldn't risk Dumbledore's displeasure. There was the Chamber of Secrets but Harry had so much invested in that place that he couldn't show it to others unless he wanted them to see the table. It contained the Casket of memories gifted by the mystics, the Elder wand, his Grimoires when he had last visited it.

He turned to Neville, "I'll find somewhere, mate. We need to find someplace where we can practice without being spied upon or someone walking in on us."

**Preparations for exams**

It was also time to start thinking about the exams. As Hermione said, they had to take their OWLs and they were around the corner, so to speak. They had decided to study together and for that purpose, they had joined 4 tables in the library at the back where they won't be a bother to anyone. Anyone among their group could join but generally people tried to avoid them when Hermione was there. She would often get the gleam in her eyes when someone talked about studies. It wasn't that people were scared of her but that she made them uncomfortable with all her questions.

They had even set aside hours every evening for themselves. Like when they had History of Magic, they would cease every other work that they were doing and study history during the allotted time. This way, they could ask doubts of each other or ask anyone of them to explain a topic they could not understand.

There were theoretical lessons for Charms, Transfigurations, Runes, Arithmancy and Potions but not for defence. Defence was completely practical and they all liked it that way better. Almost all of them knew they could ace that one simply on the practice that they had been doing. Transfigurations and Charms often followed some set rules or principles which could be discussed among them. Potions was a subject where Harry was indisputably the leader. He would often quiz them about substitute ingredients or their properties or how two different ingredients were supposed to mix with each other.

Generally Justin, Isobel, Terry, Mandy, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Harry, Susan, Daphne and Tracy were present there but at times, they were joined by others. Lilith used to join them with Ernie but since her death, Ernie lost his drive. He would still go to classes, try to live as normally as he could but his heart was not in it. He was hurting and he needed someone to help him.

The Professors, on the other hand, were absolutely brutal on them. Since the battle, Flitwick and Minerva often taught them with renewed vigour, making their assignments a challenge. They would often create a battle like scene and ask questions of their students as to what they would do in such a situation using only charms or transfiguration. Needless to say, this presented a new challenge to all of them. What it did not give them was practice.

Vikram often had taken to getting students to shoot hexes at one of them who would only dodge or shield them. He however would punish those who were hit. One day while he was teaching, he shot a bludgeoner at Anthony who could not dodge in time and the hex knocked the wind out of him.

After picking him up by his shoulder, Vikram growled, "A simple mistake and you would be dead, Mr. Goldstein. You are supposed to move all the time or save yourself as good as you can. You keep standing and you put yourself in peril including anyone who is fighting with you."

After that he had Anthony dodge again until Anthony was ready to drop from exhaustion. This had etched the lesson into their minds.

**The eagle soars high**

It was a fine morning when Ernie was by himself eating at the Hufflepuff table. Others had asked him to join them at Ravenclaw table but he refused their offer. Truth was that he had been missing Lilith and he could not bear to sit with his friends showing them his wounds.

"Why are you so grim?", asked Astoria, slipping into a seat beside him.

Ernie looked at her warily, "What are you doing, Greengrass?"

She asked him curtly, "What are you doing, Macmillan? Sulking over what cannot be changed?"

Ernie growled, "You don't understand anything, Greengrass."

She crossed her arms at her chest and huffed, "Why don't you try to explain it to me, Macmillan?"

"You won't understand what it's like to lose someone. It's unbearable for those who are left to mourn."

"You are right but you cannot grieve all your life. She would have smacked you hard if she saw you moping like this."

Ernie grumbled, "Would you please leave me in peace?"

She shook her head, "Not unless you come out of your funk. The brooding look doesn't suit you anyway. Heck, it doesn't really suit anyone except maybe Harold Peverell and even he doesn't brood anymore."

Ernie rubbed his forehead wincing, "You are not going to leave me in peace, are you?"

She smirked, "Of that you can be sure."

Daphne watched this interaction from the Ravenclaw table. She decided to ask her sister about it later. It surely looked interesting enough to harass her over it.

**The drums of war**

Harry was in the Chamber of Secrets when he received a patronus from Dumbledore, "Come to my office. Meeting about to convene."

Harry disappeared to reappear in Dumbledore's office a few moments later. In attendance were Frank, Alice, Amelia, Moody, Robards, Sirius, Snape, Remus and Vikram. Dumbledore pointed him to a chair, "Have a seat Harry. We are going to discuss war and its preparations."

"But it isn't for two months at least. Why do we need this right now?"

"Sit down lad. Time to learn something from the veterans", barked Alastor Moody.

Harry slipped into the chair and Frank opened the conversation, "Since you are the leader of the Order of the Snow Leopard and the leader of our side, we need your say in everything that we decide."

When Harry nodded he continued, "Right now, we have 170 Aurors, 40 members of the Order of the Phoenix and about 40 or so members of your Order. Now as we have decided, the battle will take place right here, at Hogwarts. Their army for now has at least 300 death eaters and mercenaries combined, 350 werewolves, and as far I as have heard, they are hoping to augment their numbers with some wizards from Austria. Plus they have 30 giants with them. Our biggest problem is the giants because we have nothing to deal with them. If even just one of them got into the castle, it could wreck havoc."

Harry nodded, "General you don't know but we have about 7 giant catapults which can launch boulders and other ammunition at the giants to bring them down. 7 of my trusted crew are trained to operate them and they are quite proficient with it. We don't need to worry about the Giants. The werewolves can be a problem. I'll try to see what I can do about them. Also we have some deadly surprises for them in one of the Greenhouses. We can be assured that we will be safe on the side of the Greenhouses. Only we will have to make sure that all of the Aurors and students who are deployed in that direction are equipped with ear muffs and dragon hide gloves. For the rest, we will have to divide the castle into zones where we can deploy our men. It has also come to my knowledge that at least 130 wizards from Bulgaria and France have committed themselves to help us in our time of need. As I see it, we are evenly matched."

Vikram spoke for the first time, "Also some of my order are constantly hunting down dark lords and their followers in other countries. We know that they can come here to aid him so we are trying to mow them down."

Alice asked, "So what is the plan?"

"The plan is to divide into teams and have them practice as a unit. When they are deployed, they will have no problem functioning with flawless coordination", said Albus. "Alastor can see to it."

Moody growled, "Damn me if I am allowed near the boys. Bartley and Black don't let me near them. You will have to ask them."

Sirius turned to him, "You want to do everything by yourself, Alastor? Don't be such a glory hog. Leave some for us lesser mortals."

Frank interrupted them, "Enough! For now we need to form our teams and drill them. Meanwhile Albus will divide the castle into zones. After discussing things with Moody, will decide how many Aurors we need to deploy in each zone."

As the meeting ended and they stood to go, Harry interrupted, "General, there is another thing."

Frank raised an eyebrow, "What is it?"

"We have agreed that the battle will be sometime after Beltane, right? By that time the Quidditch season would have started. If the Quidditch pitch is destroyed, I don't think Professor McGonagall would look upon any of us with favour."

Dumbledore visibly shuddered, "Dear me! We can't have Minerva mad at us. I will see to it that the Quidditch cup is finished by then. Also the OWLs and NEWTs will have to be held at the Ministry if the castle is damaged."

Frank nodded, "I will talk to Elder Marchbanks, Albus."

Dumbledore muttered, "And I will reschedule the Quidditch cup at the earliest opportunity rather than having to face Minerva coming at me with her wand blazing and nostrils flared."

**Somewhere in Britain**

Voldemort had some trouble getting back to Britain. As he left Greece, he had run into the elite squad of the ICW. When Voldemort left Abbadon, the old wizard had told him, "Remember boy, the journey back to your country is full of peril for you. The Elite Squad of the ICW is on your scent. Most of them are equal to grand sorcerers in power and are adept at magic. You will have to stay clear of them. Even if you run into them somewhere on your journey, try to escape for you have no chance of winning against them. They don't fight one on one but they hunt in packs. You will be caught or your vessel would be destroyed if you try to fight them."

The Elite Squad was a team of chosen wizards and witches who were accomplished in warfare and they were not often called upon. The ICW only called them in if it felt the situation was such that only they could handle it. Since Voldemort had stepped out and the ICW knew of him, first the usual war wizard contingent was sent after him. They had traced him to Austria where there had been increased movement of Dark Wizards recently but by the time they got onto his scent, he had slipped away.

They again found a trace of him in Romania when he murdered an inn full of wizards. From then they had called in the Elite Squad. Voldemort was not a dark lord that they could take lightly or their losses would be heavy. Romania was mostly peaceful for it was in a distant corner where nothing exciting ever happened. They had traced his path to the Vampires but they found all the covens intact and none having pledged to his support.

One of the biggest covens told them about Voldemort's offer, their reluctance and Voldemort's battle with a band of wizards. Very few in the ICW actually knew about the mystics or what they did. For everyone Petrov was a vampire hunter but for a select few, they knew him for what he was. They turned a blind eye towards everything that he did because he was the reason that the Covens never tried to be adventurous with the Romanian ministry being lax on them. Besides he never gave them a reason to worry about. What had surprised them was the news that Voldemort had been snatched from under their noses by someone else.

None of them had an idea about who could do so. Abbadon was as much of an unknown as Harsh Vardhan was. No one knew their true name or where they came from or where they lived. They knew about the Mystics but other than that they knew nothing about it. Likewise Abbadon was a mystery to them because there were no records about him.

Based on some intelligence that they had obtained from Petrov they made their way towards Greece. They knew that he could be anywhere but they trusted their network of spies to do the work for them. They had not been disappointed. The moment Voldemort left Abbadon's place, he had been reported to the ICW. Greece had closed its magical borders since the Elite Squad had arrived and there was no way that Voldemort or anyone else could pass through them undetected.

That left Voldemort with only one option, that being to fight his way through whatever may come and travel on foot or apparate. Apparition could not take him across the borders. He had no fixed place in mind where he could apparate and try to cross the borders. He had started journeying during the night and often hid during the day.

The Elite Squad ran into him near the border of Greece in the forests. He had been trudging through under the bright starry night when suddenly, he felt his senses flare warning him of danger. Not a second later, he had to roll aside to avoid the barrage of lethal spells which had come at him.

When he stood up, people were materialising out of thin air, dressed in battle robes, insignia of the ICW on the right breast pocket and each one looking alert to even the slightest movement from him with their wand trained at him directly. He could feel the power radiating off them. He knew that he would be no match for them if they took him on all at once. This was a rare opportunity to use the parasite spell but he had not used it before and was not sure if it would work at the moment.

He sneered at them, "So a pack of hyenas have grouped together to bring down a lion?"

The leader of the Elite Squad sneered, "A lion? We see no lion but a rabid dog cornered and about to be put down."

Despite the odds stacked against him, he had the audacity to smirk, "Brave words and some spirit. You would have made fine death eaters. I would love to duel with you but I don't have the time."

As he finished speaking, he lashed out with his wand, spinning in a circle and threw a slew of curses at them. He was sure that he would get some of them with this but they were ready for any kind of trick. As they had seen him raising his hands, they had ducked or produced a shield to save themselves. Having fired first, Voldemort had challenged them and he knew they would be getting started any moment. There was only one way that he could save himself. He had discussed his duel with Harold Peverell in great detail with Abbadon and he had told him a few things which he should have done. Now was the time to see if he could do that.

Before they could retaliate, he spun his wand in an intricate motion sending bursts of fire at the wizards who dodged to avoid this wave of attack. This curse could cast bolts of fire and pierce through most of the basic shields. The best defence against this was to dodge if one never relied too much on shields. He kept the attack going for sometime while trying to see his opening. He knew he could not win against them. Abbadon had taught him that if he was caught in a trap then he should be on the aggressive and try to break out of it rather than to fight everyone who challenged him. A warrior always chose where to have the fight and he should know when to cut his losses and retreat. This was a fight that he could not win. There was no way that he could fight with them for a longer period of time. Besides there was the risk that they could call for backup in case they found that he was more than a challenge to them. In fact, it was standard procedure for them to call on their backup before they engaged their foe. This way, even if they fell their foe would die too.

He kept up the bolts of fire for about 5 minutes before three of them stepped forward raising mage shields and taking all his attacks on them. This was problematic. He could not bring down a mage shield without the killing curse unless he was willing to risk himself to exhaustion. While his attention was momentarily distracted, others got the time to gather their wits and then they started lashing out at him with all kinds of spells and hexes. He conjured a wall between him and them. With the momentary respite this gave him, he slashed his wand in a wide arc sending a curse at the group. Most of them were already dodging but the one who was too slow was decapitated. The survivors who were alert by then started raining down on him, forcing him to keep dodging the rain of hexes and curses. As he was trying to fight them, he realised that he didn't feel the usual suffocating feeling that came with a ward. Those idiots hadn't laid any wards around the battle zone! He spun on his heels and was hoping to disapparate instantly but to his surprise, he couldn't! He spread his senses forward and was amazed at what he found. There was a ward in a radius of about a kilometre around them and this ward not only prevented apparition and disapparation but it also acted as a barrier keeping anything contained in it. This interesting wrinkle also made him think as to how he could get out.

As he felt a lull in casting, he flicked his wand and roared, "Avada Kedavra". While the emerald green spell erupted from his wand, he felt immense satisfaction. That is until, quicker than thought, one of the mages blocked the spell with conjured canaries, while his companions retaliated with a choice variety of deadly curses. He recalled the cold slap and the contempt he received at the hands of Abadan as he recalled the words, "That curse is useless, boy! Announcing to the world what you're doing while you try to look scary. , Maybe that'll work on school girls, but it's a wasted effort on anyone who knows how to duel."

The contempt on the wizards' faces made it plain that he'd better try something else if he was going to escape them. He raised a shield with his off-hand to block the wide area stuff while neatly side-stepping the bolts. He noticed that one of the mages favoured using shields. Very well, he would be the next to die. With considerable effort, he laid down a non-verbal spell chain of a stinger, disguised to look like a Bombarda Maxima, a shield breaker and finally a bone exploder. Predictably, the mage shielded against what looked like a deadly spell, but his shield shattered with the second spell and the third one ruptured his chest.

That was when his opponents started disapparating out of the way of his curses and apparating at his back or to his sides. They would apparate in, shoot a spell and be gone before he could retaliate. He was momentarily panicked when he found that they could apparate and he could not. Then he realised that they were not apparating beyond the boundaries of the wards they had set.

As another barrage came at him, he disapparated to appear at the edge of the ward with the Elite Squad following Voldemort shortly after he arrived. If it were just a ward, he could have walked out of the area where the ward was active but this one had a barrier too. It prevented him from leaving. The problem was that he could see no ward stone tied to this ward. He hoped that meant that maybe he could try a little trick.

He raised his wand and conjured an immense brick wall between him and them. While they blasted away at the conjured masonry, he cast a tunnelling spell at the ground and started opening a tunnel under and beyond the ward boundaries. It was hard going, having to fend them off while he tunnelled but after a hard duel of about ten minutes, he was able to make a tunnel. Not wasting one moment, he sent the deadly black fog at his opponents and jumped into the tunnel. He came out of it about a minute later and immediately took to the skies.

The magical borders were shut but not adequately guarded. He had been able to punch a hole through them with sheer power and exited Greece. He however had to take a stop in the next country because he had numerous wounds upon his body. He had not felt them during the battle because Abbadon had taught him a simple trick which allowed him to subdue pain and have a clear head while fighting. Many spells had hit him and he knew he would have to perform the rejuvenation ritual sooner or later but for now, he could patch himself up and go on.

That had been three days ago. Since then, he had gone through the ritual again, rejuvenated his body and gathered his strength. Contrary to his expectations, the magical borders of Wizarding Britain seemed to be the same as they had been two months ago. The gaps had not been filled so he could sneak in, or so he thought. Unknown to him, his arrival didn't go unnoticed. Within minutes after he entered the borders of magical Britain, a report was sent to the office of the General from the Unspeakables that he had returned. The General ordered the gaps to be sealed immediately. There would be no getting out for death eaters and their allies.

* * *

**A/N- So some idiot gave an abuse filled review to the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Tribe of Mystics. I don't know why they do that. I don't use expletives in my stories for I believe in clean stories which can thrill you without using those words.**

**P.s. - I am overwhelmed with the love that is shown to my works in the reviews and I hope it will be the same way until the end. After this story, I am planning to go for a single book story which would start somewhere from the end of the third year when they are about to corner Peter but I won't work on that unless I am absolutely certain that people want to read that. May be, you can leave something in the comments, eh? **


	21. Chapter 21

**Hogwarts**

"But that will be too soon, Albus", said Minerva McGonagall tersely. She and the other heads of house were in the Headmaster's office. He had just told them that he was bringing the Quidditch season to a close a lot sooner than it usually went.

"Headmaster, what made you do it?", asked Severus Snape.

Dumbledore sighed heavily, "We have credible intelligence from the ministry that Voldemort will be mustering his forces to attack the castle some time after Beltane. A final push if you will. We expect that he will hold nothing back. Win or lose, the battle will likely leave the castle and the Quidditch pitch in shambles. To make sure that our students get to finish the Quidditch tournament, I'm moving the schedule up a month. And, to make sure that the OWLS's and the NEWT's take place, the ministry has made arrangements to hold the exams there if the castle is too badly damaged to hold them here at Hogwarts."

They began protesting but Albus raised his hand to silence them, "I did not make this decision. The General asked me to discuss this with the staff. If you all think that we can keep it the way it was, I will be happy to pass that on to him."

The teachers were not happy about it, but after about a minute of discussing it among themselves, they realized that what Albus had proposed was the best of a bunch of awful choices for the students. Minerva McGonagall spoke up, "Okay Albus, we agree to it."

Dumbledore smiled, "Thank-you. Let's talk about the revised schedule."

About an hour later, the meeting was over. Snape lingered after the other staff had left. He asked Dumbledore, "Headmaster, I don't believe that I have brought you any intelligence about a pending attack from the death eaters. How do you know?"

"The General and Lord Peverell are calling the shots, Severus. I'm only being told the barest details. Now Severus, there is something I wanted to talk to you about."

Severus asked apprehensively, "And what would that be, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore steepled his long slender fingers together and paused for a few seconds before he spoke again, "Severus, I believe that it is time you told Harry about your role in the prophecy."

Snape went ballistic, "Are you out of your mind, Headmaster? I can't tell him about it. He will hate me for the rest of his life. Things are good the way they are."

Dumbledore sighed, "You seriously underestimate that young lord, Severus. He deserves to know. Do you want to carry this burden with you to the grave? You won't find peace within yourself unless you make peace with him. I have seen you tormenting yourself because you hold yourself responsible for what happened. I know the pain you are going through."

Severus said hotly, "You know nothing, old man. You can't know the pain that I go through knowing that I am partially responsible for Lilly's and Potter's death."

Dumbledore's eyes were sad and his voice was thick, "I know, my boy. I know how it feels and that is why I advise you to talk to Harry."

Severus said curtly, "The answer is still NO, headmaster. And you have promised not to tell him. This war will be over soon and I will be free of the promise that I made to myself. I will leave Hogwarts forever then."

With that the Dungeon bat walked out of his office. Dumbledore didn't bother to stop him as he was remembering the incident which had happened almost a century ago, his sister Ariana's death. He hadn't confronted Grindelwald for years for fear of knowing that it was his curse which had caused his sister's death. He eventually faced his former friend and it was his defeat which brought peace to his life.

**The next day**

The next day, a notice was posted in the common room of each house:

_**"QUIDDITCH CUP RESCHEDULED**_

_All the students and staff are hereby informed that the remaining matches of the Quidditch cup this season have been rescheduled by the Headmaster in concurrence with our Heads of House and Madam Hooch in view of prevailing conditions. The new schedule is as follows:_

_Hufflepuff versus Slytherin- Saturday, March 29_

_Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw- Saturday, April 6_

_Ravenclaw versus Slytherin- Saturday, April 20_

_Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff- Saturday April 27_

_**In addition, all students are notified that all Hogsmead weekends are hereby cancelled until further notice.**_

_By Order of,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

_Order of Merlin, First Class_

_Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_Supreme Mugwump of ICW and Chief Warlock, Wizengamot._

This caused uproar in the common rooms of the houses. As opposed to the usual schedule, the matches were now a month sooner and on top of that, the OWLs and NEWTs were coming up fast. They could have talked to their Heads of House but they knew that wouldn't get them anywhere.

When Angelina heard the news, she went ballistic. She caught hold of Harry at the Gryffindor Table. Ronald, Ginny, Fay, the twins, Katie and Alicia were around so she got straight to the point, "Alright, so here's the deal. For the next month, I'm going to book the pitch as much as I can and whenever I can. We need to practice and our deadline has just been shifted a month earlier.".

George pulled her to his side, "Calm down Angie. Just look around you. We're all in better shape than we've ever been and at our last practice, we were like a well-oiled machine. But…", he gave Fred a significant glance, "The new schedule complicates things.".

Harry scrunched his forehead, "What complications?"

"You see Harrikins, we can't play against Hufflepuff because Fred and I have to be somewhere else that day", he replied sombrely.

Angelina shrieked, "WHAT! How can you both stay out of a match? We will lose without you."

Harry turned to her, "Excuse me, didn't we select backup players to play in case some of us were unavailable? We have Fay and Jack who have been waiting for their chance. We have seen them in practice. Even if they only have half the talent of Gred and Forge, we will have an easy win. Between you three, me and Ron there is nothing that this team can't achieve."

Angelina reluctantly nodded, "Alright, if you say so, Harry. But we stumble even a little in the match and I will hex the day lights out of you."

The Hufflepuff captain had problems. They had put up a good fight in the match against Ravenclaw but had lost because their seeker wasn't quite as exceptional. They would have easily won if only he had caught the snitch before Cho did. The best that he could do was to wish that he wouldn't fold under pressure. However they had an advantage in the next match of the season. If they could exploit this advantage, they surely would not end up at the bottom of the rankings. Also he would have to make sure that Zacharias Smith performed well for he was one of the chasers and without him hope would be lost.

The Claws were confident with the one win they had scraped against the badgers. However they knew the real test was ahead. Their next opponent was Gryffindor and they had the best team in the school. Cho Chang could not win against Harold Peverell, not when he could fly so beautifully on that broom of his. Add to that, her broom was no match to him and he could out speed her. They could not even take down their other players for the Gryffindor chasers had been playing together for the last 4 years and were among the best players while the beaters were of formidable repute. Nobody in their right mind tangled with the Weasley Twins.

**The Serpent's Pit**

The Slytherin team knew this season was ruined. The reason was that one of their chasers and their beaters had been expelled from the school. Warrington, Crabbe and Goyle were gone and now they needed to find replacements, train them and hope to win against other teams, all in a month. Add to that the fact that they would need to hold a full-fledged trial was a headache. They hoped Snape would be prompt in making the appointments.

As soon as the last student knew about the rescheduled tournament, the wall which hid the Slytherin Common Room slid aside and Snape strolled in, his cloak billowing behind him, a sneer on his face. He took one of the chairs near the fire and waited for the house to gather around him. When they did, he began to speak, "As Dumbledore has expelled three of the members of our Quidditch team, we are now short by three players and those are key positions. Trials will be held this evening. Any of you who wish to participate can report. I must emphasise that no one should be stopped from trying. In the past, Slytherin girls have never come up for the trials and I feel that it's about time that changed. Today we will be taking trials for a chaser and two beaters. Now is Mr. Montague here?"

Montague stepped forward, "Yes Professor

Severus said curtly, "I want a team ready by evening today Mr. Montague and I don't want to hear that you did not allow girls into the team because it is tradition. To ensure that my word is followed, Mr. Pucey will be with you and make sure that you are doing what is asked of you. I will have the note signed reserving the pitch this evening for you."

As Snape was about to leave, Malfoy stepped forward, "Professor, I want a word."

Snape motioned for him to go on, "Professor, I… I want to change position from Seeker to Chaser. As there is a vacancy, maybe I can apply if you would allow it."

Snape looked at him before he opened his mouth, "Let me be clear about this, Draco. This is an open trial. I want to field the best team we can. Anyone can try out for any position. No player has a secure position unless they are the best we have. I suggest that you try out for all the positions you are interested in and let the captain sort out where you work best. If you are the best seeker we have, that's where you will play. Should you prove to be a better chaser and we can find a better seeker, then so be it. Is that clear?"

Draco nodded, "Yes professor."

Malfoy's decision to change positions had come after Milicent had talked with him about it a week earlier. Millie knew she wasn't going to participate in the war and neither would Draco. She also knew that there was little chance that Malfoy would gain prominence in the ministry under the current regime. Even if the death eaters won, there would be no place for the Malfoys so there was only one way ahead for Draco. His family's illegal trades had been stopped since Frank had come into power. The Malfoys had no other constant source of income but for that generated by the Gnomes. Malfoy would need to work because wealth would not last forever. They had agreed that he could try playing Quidditch for any of the low tier teams. Those teams were always in need of decent talent but they didn't have had the galleons to hire the best ones. They had decided that Malfoy could apply to them and start with any of them eventually working his way up. He had requested to shift from playing Seeker because he had been thrashed in that position his second, third and fifth year at Hogwarts. With Harold Peverell blitzing his way around, there was little chance that he would be noticed. The infamous taint of being the seeker who always lost to the boy-who-lived would haunt him. Milicent had confided in him how he had been the butt of every quidditch joke where Harold Peverell was concerned. If he was allowed to play chaser then maybe he would get noticed starting the next year and wouldn't face humiliation as he had in the past years he had played.

**Unknown Castle**

Voldemort was holding a meeting of the surviving members of the inner circle and he was livid. His magic was wrapped around him in a dark aura and his blood red eyes were glowing like hot coals. The death eaters stood like servants before him with their hands folded and heads bowed in submission. He had crucioed all of them before he said a word. It was always good to get his frustration out of the way if he wanted to get any good out of the meeting that was about to proceed.

"Take your seats", he said coldly.

They rushed into their seats though each tried to take a seat as far away from as they could. Each of them was cowering in their seat while he scrutinised them.

The seat to his right was vacant which was generally occupied by Bellatrix. The one on his left was also vacant and it belonged to Severus who was in the castle spying on the old fool. The one next to Bellatrix was also vacant which was taken by Dolohov in the past. The one next to Severus was occupied by Rudolphus and the one next by Rabbastan. Next to the seat of Dolohov was occupied by Malfoy, who tried to hide in his chair. Voldemort could smell fear coming from him. Perhaps Lucius would be the perfect one to make an example of when all was said and done. The seat next to Rabbastan was vacant which was occupied in the past by Mulciber Sr. while the seat next to him was occupied by Macnair. The seat next to Macnair was vacant and it used to be Rookwood's. This troubled him. He knew that Rookwood was not among the dead so he was quite alive but where, he couldn't say. The one next to Rookwood belonged to Corbin Yaxley who was in his seat and looking smug. The seat next to him belonged to Travers who had perished in the battle of Hogsmeade and the ones next were occupied by Gibbons and Thorfinn Rawle. Of the thirteen knights of his Order, only 9 remained but the thing was that the 4 who died had been the best of his followers. Bellatrix's rage was well known to the world and her ruthlessness was just an added bonus. She was a terror that made others shiver in fear of her. Mulciber Sr. was a decent duellist who had killed his fair share of wizards in the first war and had served time in Azkaban. Travers had been an asset to him in the first war and was one of those who had killed the McKinnons. His service was unparalleled to Voldemort. Dolohov was ruthless and a mercenary at heart. He was absolutely brutal and even had his own signature spell which could cause instant death. He would need some other people to fill in their places.

Triton Selwyn was killed at Azkaban with a dagger to his heart while his brother had been brutally killed in the raid at Green Hues. If any of them were alive, he would have gladly offered them a place in his inner circle for they had earned it. For now, he needed a few people in the vacant places but first he needed to ask what the condition of his forces was.

He turned to Lucius, "I have kept abreast with the developments taking place here since I went abroad but I want an account of the ambush where Bella and Mulciber were killed."

Lucius cleared his throat unnecessarily and said silkily, "My lord, Bella was leading us in your stead since you left. She was directing your forces and she had decided that a raid was in order that would cause irreparable harm to the Aurors. We had laid an ambush in Cardiff but somehow the ministry got word of it and they set a trap. We had sent 40 death eaters and they met about 20 Aurors in battle. A while after they left, Bella gathered about 20 more of the death eaters and went out with Dolohov. We don't know what happened there but as per Dolohov's report, we were winning when the Order of the Snow Leopard came and laid waste to your forces. He claimed that there were only two of them and that one of them single-handedly dealt with your forces while the other cut a path of destruction between him and Bella killing Mulciber in the process and challenged her. The next day we heard that she was killed. Dolohov was able to make an escape that day."

"I see. We were betrayed by one of our own or the ministry couldn't have known about our plans. Now about the battle of Hogsmead. I am pleased with the damage that we were able to cause to them but a lot of magical blood was spilled which should have been avoided. Those children could be moulded to serve us in better way but that is water under the bridge now. Who made that plan?"

Lucius wondered for the hundredth time about why he had chosen to serve the Dark lord and why he was ecstatic when he was asked to sit in his inner circle. It only brought problems to him. At that moment however, Voldemort was looking at him with such concentration that he internally shuddered. He started speaking after 5 minutes of waiting, "My lord, one of the Germans named Emmet Wagner made that plan. He was going in for the shock and retreat strategy but we miscalculated things."

Voldemort continued in his same drawling voice, "I will invite this Wagner inside after I am done asking questions. Now I had left specific instructions when I went on this journey. First was to find if we could get to the officials of the ministry. Second was to find a way to kill the mudbloods. Third was to see that my men are sufficiently trained."

Lucius bowed, "My Lord, we tried to raid the manors of the officials of the ministry but we got nothing. We lost 7 at Bones manor, two at the home of the house of the blood-traitor Weasleys, 10 at Green Hues, 5 in an attack on the home of a mudblood family and 2 in the attack on a mudblood family in Hampstead. 5 more were killed in trying to kill a half-blood hiding in the muggle world. The ministry has devised ways to come to the aide of the mudbloods at a moment's notice and we were losing too many. Severus suggested that we cut our losses and stop attacking them until the ministry comes down from high alert. Rabbastan and Rudolphus have been training your army every day since you left."

"What happened to my pet wolf?", Voldemort asked coldly.

"He was killed in a raid at the hands of Remus Lupin who has become a thorn in our side. He has an army of werewolves which fights with our werewolves to protect the muggles and wizards."

Voldemort's fury was rising yet he was suppressing his anger for now. He needed more answers, "Lucius, I had left you alive in the hopes that you'd have redeemed your name by now. Do you have anything to show for yourself?"

Lucius knew he was in a tight spot but he chose to tell the truth for Voldemort would find out anyhow, "Master, I was sent on a raid to a muggle family in Hampstead. The ministry somehow got wind of our movements and the Aurors arrived in record time. I was able to kill one of them but had to retreat when I was outnumbered."

Voldemort raised his wand, "You have failed me yet again, Lucius. CRUCIO!"

Lucius bent double with pain, his mouth clamped firmly, his teeth chattering against each other as he was making a great effort to save himself from biting his tongue. The torture went on for about 5 minutes. The others started to worry if Voldemort was going to kill Lucius Malfoy or drive him permanently insane. Voldemort wanted to vent his fury on someone. Since he could not get access to Harold Peverell or the General, he showed his displeasure to the nearest target. That was unfortunate for Lucius Malfoy who for all his failures was his whetstone. He however remembered Abbadon's warning and did not kill Malfoy. Lucius would serve him even if unwillingly.

After about 5 minutes when it appeared that Lucius's mind would snap, he ended the torture and called for healers to take him away. The healers were mortified with the havoc that had been wrecked upon the Malfoy Lord. His robes were heavily singed with them remaining in tatters. His skin was dissolved in places, his flesh appeared burnt and he was barely breathing. They would need to put forth all their skill and expertise to save him. If they failed then the Dark Lord would do the same to them.

After Lucius was carted off, Voldemort turned to his remaining followers, "I may have been a trifle harsh with Lucius but he had it coming to him for a long time. Presently I will admit some new people to this coveted inner circle but before that I will hear the German.". He motioned to Gibbons, "You, Gibbons, go and fetch him."

Gibbons returned a moment later with the German in tow who sat in one of the chairs without asking. Voldemort glared at him, "I did not give you leave to sit down, Wagner."

Wagner said nonchalantly, "You can keep this showing off for your followers. I am here assisting you on orders from the Guild. We made an agreement with you but you are not my master. Come to the point."

About half a dozen wands were instantly pointed at Wagner but Voldemort interrupted, "Sheath your wands. I will talk to him." He then turned to Wagner and said in his meanest and coldest voice, "let it be known that Lord Voldemort keeps his word. If it were not for the promise I made to Waldhem, you would be a smoking pile of ash on the floor right now. None of the wizards that you bested were Lord Voldemort. You don't want to see what I can do to you."

The sneer and the disdainful curl at the end of his lip made Wagner shudder despite himself. He was used to Waldhem Meyer who treated them well and never forced them but rather asked their cooperation. Wagner's perception of a Dark Lord was shattered with Voldemort. He wouldn't show it but he found that Voldemort was more formidable than he had heard. The way he was glaring at him, Wagner wanted to dig a hole and crawl in. Voldemort's magic which was as black as his soul made the air around them tense and threatening. For the first time, he realised why Voldemort was the most feared Dark Lord. His respect for Harold Peverell increased in that moment. The lad was only 15 yet he had been able to stand before Voldemort and duel with him for 2 hours. Just to face Voldemort when his fury was awakened was something Wagner didn't want to think about.

Voldemort spoke in a cold slimy voice which sounded like slithering snakes, "Manners, Wagner. Meyer knows better than to offend me. Now you know also. Speak to me that way again and you shall not live long enough to regret it."

Wagner rose to his feet, "I beg your pardon, Dark Lord, for my rudeness."

Voldemort sneered at him, "See? Manners. You may be seated." He waited the moment it took Wagner to sit down before continuing, "Now, enlighten me. Why did you decide to attack Hogsmead?"

"I have studied the wizards of Britain. The one thing that they value above all else is their children. The same children who are the future of the wizarding world. At the very least, I believed that we could force some concessions if not all out surrender from them if we struck at their children. Perhaps new death eaters or massive ransoms, depending on the disposition of each captured student. I knew they were well protected in the castle, but during a Hogsmead weekend, many of them would be most vulnerable. To pull many of the Aurors stationed there away, we started rumours of a large attack in Wales. We set up wards around the perimeter of the village to prevent anyone from entering or leaving. As it turned out, only ten Aurors remained on station when we launched our attack."

Voldemort nodded at his line of thought, "It seems that your plan should have worked. Surely, the number you took into battle would have made short work of a measly ten Aurors. How did you fail?"

He shook his head as if to deny the facts then grumbled, "The students knew how to fight. We were expecting no resistance at all but those students were actually fighting with us on an equal footing. In fact most of them appeared to be better trained than your own followers. If it had been a fair fight where we didn't have hostages, I have no doubt that they would have killed every last one of us. They had to save others while they fought while we had no such compunctions. Then there were those boys who changed everything. I duelled with Dumbledore but he was not duelling to kill, at least not outright. He used hexes and curses which made me bleed and were killing me slowly. However those two boys had no compunctions about taking a life. They were doing it as easily as I am talking to you."

"Who were those boys?", Voldemort asked just to confirm what he already knew.

"Harold Peverell and Neville Longbottom", Wagner confirmed, "They were like two greater demons as they dealt with us. The Longbottom boy destroyed our wards by sheer force. The Peverell boy was killing your men left and right. In fact he was moving so fast that it looked like we were not moving at all. Harold Peverell kept killing one after another without giving a damn about who he hit with a curse. You have made some formidable enemies. These pathetic men that you call your followers were cut down before they could even aim their wands."

Voldemort knew he was speaking the truth. He had been reading the surface thoughts of the German while he spoke. He also knew that his men were incompetent. They could cast a curse but that was all. They could not dodge, they could not battle for an extended amount of time nor did they fight like a team.

He turned to the German again, "What can you do in regard to my men? You know we can't go out of this place lest the ministry gets wind of our whereabouts."

Wagner nodded, "Leave them to me. Let me have free rein to deal with them as I see fit and I will deliver an effective fighting force."

He nodded, "Very well. You shall have your desire. Should you prove to be as good as your word, I shall reward you. Should you prove to be full of hubris, you shall pay with your life."

With that, Wagner was dismissed. He turned to his inner circle again, "Now where is Rookwood?"

Corbin Yaxley answered him, "My lord, he is missing. He went on a mission to spy out the wards of the manors of the old families to see if they could somehow be brought down. He hasn't reported in since."

He beckoned Yaxley forward, "Your arm, Corbin."

He touched one skeletal finger to the dark mark on Yaxley's arm. He winced inwardly but did not show it. As Voldemort let it go, he returned to his seat immediately.

Rookwood came in about ten minutes later. He immediately went down on his knees, kissing the hem of Voldemort's robes, "How may I serve you, master?"

Voldemort beckoned him to take his seat, "Augustus, I have been waiting for you. I was concerned for you. Where have you been?"

Of course he wasn't concerned for him at all and his death would have only inconvenienced him a trifle but there was no harm in telling a lie if it could yield him loyalty from his followers.

Augustus's eyes were tearing up, "Master is too kind."

"What did you find out, Augustus?", he asked silkily.

"Master, I found that the wards of Bones Manor and Green Hues are impregnable but the same is not the case with others like the Greengrasses, the Boots, the Macmillans etc. For example, we will need a team of about 5 wizards to bring down the wards after destroying the ward-stones which are unprotected and can be destroyed. Other than that, we will need a force of about ten to deal with whoever is in there at Boot's manor."

Voldemort smirked, "Then let it be our next target. But before that I want to cause some chaos for the ministerial forces. How did things go at Hogwarts? Was Malfoy's son eliminated?"

Rudolphus answered, "Bella designated a handful of students to take him out but the blasted Aurors got wind of the affair and they were caught before they could finish the job. Those students were expelled."

Voldemort roared in fury as he a hole through the nearest wall of the room they were in. He growled at them, "All you have is bad news for me. You have all disappointed me. If I were not so forgiving, I would have killed every one who has been a bearer of bad news to me".

After a minute, he asked again, "Who is managing the werewolves now that Greyback is gone?"

Macnair answered, "One of Greyback's assistance named Aniston has taken over their command, my lord. He is very loyal to our cause."

Voldemort nodded, "Call him in after we are done here. Call Parkinson and Nott."

When they came in, he pointed them to two of the vacant chairs, "You have both been loyal to me and served me as effectively as you can. For this, I have decided to reward you both by taking you into my inner circle."

**The Chamber of Secrets**

Harry was sparring with Vikram in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry had been duelling with Vikram for 6 months now and even though the older man lacked Harry's youthful reflexes, Harry had never been able to best him. The mystic was not overtly powerful like Vari but he had a certain inscrutable subtlety to him that always enabled him to get past Harry. He always had some tricks ready that would turn the tables and Harry really enjoyed duelling with him.

Among the students only Neville could give him any real competition but the duels with him didn't bring the excitement which the duels with Vikram brought. Vikram always did something unorthodox at the moment when Harry didn't expect it.

That evening they were practicing duelling with each other and Harry was casting the most lethal curses at Vikram who was dancing around the curses and looked right at home. Harry didn't use dual wands on the mystic because that was not what those duels were meant for. Those duels were meant for learning new things. For practicing, Harry could always destroy dummies.

As Harry's barrage of curses was unrelenting, Vikram kept dancing and with a movement faster than the blink of an eye, he sent a spear at Harry who produced a wooden shield in time to stop it. As the spear got caught in the shield, Harry transfigured them into a javelin and banished it at Vikram. Vikram, to Harry's horror, stood motionless and seemed to do nothing to stop it. Harry was sure that in a moment he would have a skewered professor and a lot of questions to answer to Dumbledore who likely would ask if Harry would stop running through all the defence professors that he had hired. However it was not to be, as when the javelin neared him, Vikram slashed his wand in an arc and the javelin disintegrated in thin air! There was not a trace left of it. Harry was left with his mouth open in surprise. After a moment or two, he came to his wits and asked, "Umm... Professor how did you... whatever that was?"

Vikram chuckled, "Something that not everyone can do. Not even all the mystics can do it. Your five teachers who taught you, Lord Sharang and I can successfully do it. It requires a lot of concentration, using it with pin point precision, exact wand movement and the incantation. This is audible spell so you will have to speak it but muttering it under your breath would be good idea. This spell can turn any animation or conjuration to dust. Not advisable in battle if you can't perform it in practice and no something that you should show off. Like you use taditam so often, this one should not be paraded around for others to see. Seeing for first time can amaze your enemy so they would be stumped for a bit which can give you crucial time."

He taught the spell incantation and the wand movement to Harry, "Make the symbol of infinity with giving a flick at the start and a jab at the end. While doing this, remember not to move your wand too wildly but just a quick motion would be sufficient. The incantation is 'Vastu visarjanam'. But remember that it won't work on spells or curses but solid object such as the javelin that you had sent at me."

This spell was a challenge for Harry. It didn't take him long to get the wand movement and incantation down, but the spell wouldn't work for him. After about an hour, Vikram told him, "Harry, this is your challenge to find why you can't cast it perfectly yet. I hope that you will have a solution for me in the next session. Now I wanted to talk to you about something."

Harry apprehensively nodded, "Yes professor. What do you want?"

"Harry, as I heard in that meeting, the final battle is barely two months away. Yet I see that none of your friends are practicing. I can't think why."

"Professor, we used to train in the Room of Requirement. It is currently claimed by the Headmaster to empty the Room of Hidden things. I fear that the work will go on for months. I don't know of any other place that we can practice."

Vikram scowled, "you can all practice right here in this chamber."

"But Professor, I don't know if I am ready to show it to them. The table which I have placed here contains things worth more than my life."

Vikram looked at him critically, "Do you know that there may be more to this place than this single chamber?"

Now that he thought about it, he realised that there might be more than this one room to the Chamber of Secrets. He walked up to the statue in the chamber and raising his hand, he hissed, "Speak to me Slytherin, Greatest of Hogwarts Four."

The hissing voice he had heard the last time spoke again, "Who calls Slytherin?"

"I Harold James Peverell-Potter-Black-Rosier-Weber call upon you in the name of mother magic to grant me access to the chambers within."

This time, the face of the statue split in two and slid to either side to reveal a door that led inside. The door was beside the tunnel that the Basilisk had come from.

Harry turned to Vikram, smirking, "After you, Professor."

There was another room after entering through the door but that was it. It was as big as a dorm in the Gryffindor tower. A very old rickety table stood in one corner but it didn't look in very good shape. Harry vanished the table after being satisfied that it would not serve him well.

After vanishing the table, they each waved their wands in a complex motion. In response, suddenly the wind rushed around the chamber. When it stopped after a minute, there were no cobwebs, the walls looked clean and Harry had a personal chamber to himself.

After moving his table and chair with everything on it into the freshly cleaned room, they exited it and sealed the statue after them. Then they set to work, examining the walls for more secret ways out of the chamber other than for the entrance that he used for himself. That entrance was guarded by the nastiest of wards and he was not in the mood to take them down.

When they could not find anything on any more of the serpent hoods, Vikram doused all the sources of light in the room. With the room dark, he waved his wand in a complicated motion. A moment later, two stones on walls opposite to each other began to glow faintly.

Vikram said to him, "Go and tap them with your wand, Harry."

Harry went up to the stones and tapped them in turn with his wand but nothing happened. Vikram suggested, "Try asking them to open in Parseltongue."

This time, Harry hissed, "Open." The stone glowed for a moment and an outline of a door shimmered into existence before them. A moment later, there was a door where there had been a solid wall. To their surprise, this door opened near the Grand staircase. It was hidden behind a tapestry. As he exited, he hissed, "Close." The door closed and sealed itself without a trace. He opened the door from the outside the same way as he had opened it from the inside.

The other stone opened in the same way. It opened on the landing of a stair case which led up through the castle. Harry had a distinct feeling that this staircase was situated within a wall. He confirmed his theory by looking at the Marauder's Map which showed him within the masonry. The staircase opened somewhere near the second floor where the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws could easily access it.

After that he went back into the chamber. Vikram taught him the art of revealing the hidden doorways as he had done. This would save him the hassle of marking the entrances so that they could remain completely concealed. Also that would deter others from trying to find it. Only Harry could open and close it so there was little chance that anyone could get in but it never hurt to be cautious.

**The next morning**

Angelina had booked the Quidditch pitch for the next morning and she rounded up the members of her Quidditch team as they came down for morning runs. Harry had the rest of them go through their paces while Neville, Daphne, Susan and Du Vant kept them honest. The practice was brutal. She had Ron at the goal post while all the chasers (including the spare ones and Harry) tried to get the Quaffle past him. The 4 beaters did their best to try and break up the plays with the Bludgers. The chasers were all flying well, but the occasional Bludger still managed to find its mark. For the first half hour, Fay and Sloper defended the chasers while the twins tried to break up the plays and prevent the chasers from getting to the goal. It was just as bad during the second half hour when the two sets of beaters switched roles.

During the hour of practice, Harry cursed Voldemort, Dumbledore and the twins ( specifically in that order). Voldemort for existing in the first place and not dying when Harry was little, Dumbledore for bringing the deadlines closer and the twins for being merciless and not giving an inch. Each of the chasers had been hit at least once and were nursing bruised ribs. It didn't become any better when Fay and Sloper went on the offensive. They were able to get an equal number of Bludgers past the twins and whack them. As it turned out, the new beaters were every bit as talented as Gred and Forge who had earned the dubious honour of being dubbed 'The Human Bludgers' by Wood during his captaincy. The team was confident that their substitute beaters would do. In fact, if the other team underestimated the new beaters, they may even prove to be an advantage.

The keeper, Ron, however was miserable. He had used every technique that he knew to perform at the top of his form and yet he had let in a few goals. Of the 100 times that he had the Quaffle soaring at him, he had been able to make 85 saves. He perked up when Harry reminded him that he was defending against twice as many chasers as he ever would during a real game.

In the end, Angelina was satisfied with the way the practice had gone. It was looking like a promising start but they would only know on the day of the match.

* * *

The Slytherins too had their trial the last evening and they had the new players. Conrad Du Vant, a member of the Order of the Snow Leopard had grabbed the position of beater while Margaret Thickett went on to become the first girl on Slytherin Quidditch team. Malfoy was able to get in the desired position of beater while Harper, who was a year behind them got into the position of seeker. Harper wasn't the best choice but no one else had made the cut for chasers as Malfoy did. Considering they were not going to play Gryffindor in the rest of the season, Montague decided to risk selecting him for that role.

* * *

**A/N- I know this update came very late when it was in fact ready about two weeks ago. I lost my mother this month and as such, I am not in very fit state of mind to write new chapters for some time to come. I will do what I can but the updates can be delayed. Please bear with me and pray for the peace of my mother's soul. Love you all.**

**The lord of Mystics.**


	22. Chapter 22

**It's battle time**

Harry had sent a message to the Badgers and Serpents to meet him near the grand staircase entrance that evening and now was waiting for them with Susan at his side. These days, Susan never left his side unless there was no other option. When they all reported, she was attached to him at the hip. In fact, they were kissing quite passionately when the badgers and the serpents found them.

"If you two need some time to yourselves, we can always come back later", said Hannah who had Neville with her, "and please get a room."

They both immediately let go and Susan turned to Hannah, "Did you have to ruin my moment?"

Daphne grinned, "Forgive her Susie. She's grumpy because Longbottom is an idiot." (Everyone ignored Neville's blushing). She turned to Harry, "Did you call us here to watch you snog the daylights out of Susan?"

Harry wrinkled his nose, "Don't be so crass, Daph. I called you here to take you to your new training grounds."

Neville asked curiously, "Where in this castle is such a place that I don't already know about?"

Harry smirked, "You'll see."

He led them to the door which was hidden behind a tapestry and showed it to them, "When it's time for our training sessions, I will be here to take you in. The door cannot be revealed to any of you in any other way and only I can open it."

With that he led them in and they walked into the chamber. Since the chamber was dark, they were following him with their wands lit. When they reached the chamber, he waved his wand and all the torches in the dungeon lit up making them gasp in surprise.

Everyone looked around in awe and wonder for a few minutes before Susan found her voice, "What is this place, Harry?"

Harry spread his arms wide to indicate the entire room and said grandly, "Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets".

There were many gasps from among the crowd and even some shocked voices. Finally Daphne asked, "Is this all there is to the chamber?"

Harry nodded, "This is it. What you see is the chamber."

One of the Slytherins at the back of the crowd asked, "You said there was a basilisk carcass in here. What did you do with it?"

Harry smirked, "Where do you think those suits of armour came from that I gifted to you? They are made of basilisk hide. I obtained them after having rendered the beast for useful components."

After a moment, he said, "let me go and collect the claws and lions now while you make preparations to ambush them. But remember this shall be a non-lethal spells battle. If I see someone firing so much as a bone-breaker, they will be out of here before they can say a word."

As he left, he doused all the torches in the chamber, leaving them in pitch black darkness except for their wand-lights.

When he arrived at the door behind the wall on the 2nd floor, he knew they were all gathered near where he had asked them to meet. As the wall melted in front of him to reveal the hidden staircase and the doorway, there were cries of shock, gasps of wonder and some even jumped back in fright.

Hermione asked him, "Harry, how did you do this? Has this way been here since ever? Where does it lead to? How do you know about it? How does it become visible?"

With a look from Harry, Ron caught her hand and murmured in her ear which made her go quiet as everyone was grinning at her in amusement. Harry opened the door and turned to them, "Form two lines and start going down. Be warned, that at the end of the staircase, there is an ambush waiting for you. A mock battle, if you will. In a chamber which is dark at the moment. Non-lethal spells only. Those who are hit will be out of it. We will see how it goes."

They immediately formed two lines with Terry taking the head of the boy's line while Mandy took the girls. The twins were in the middle, looking for the formation and ensuring that none of them were straying. They were also to tell the plan for battle, if they had one. Ron and Hermione brought up the rear. The only person who stayed out of line was Ginny.

As they all went through the doorway, she caught Harry's hand and asked anxiously, "We aren't going there, are we?"

Harry suddenly realised why she was anxious. The chamber was a place of half remembered nightmares for her. It might trigger some trauma for her. He internally chastised himself for not thinking about it sooner but there was nothing for it now. He turned to her and said sombrely, "I know you might not want to ever visit that place again, Ginny but it is the only place I can think of where we can practice right now. Rest assured that the chamber has been transformed from what it was at that time. There are no remains of the Basilisk. If you see it once and still want to leave, I myself will escort you back to the Gryffindor Common Room."

She reluctantly agreed and they went down the staircase. They were all gathered at the end of the stairs while Ron explained his strategy, "first, a group of 4 will enter using solaris as they go in. The sudden light should dazzle their vision and reveal their positions. Before they have a chance to adjust, we should be able to get through the door and hit most of them with the first wave of spells. Formation Alpha. Go in pairs. One shields while one casts hexes and jinxes creatively. That is the only way that we can get to them."

Before they could enter, Harry spoke up, "I am not participating in this battle. I am going to see if anyone is cheating. If anyone is then I will call them out on it."

They nodded and Harry melted into the shadows at the back of the crowd. Unknown to them, as soon as he went into the shadows, he disapparated.

Harry was getting frustrated. The battle had gone on for about half an hour. Almost half of them were dead. They simply couldn't think on their feet. The four who entered first had done well with temporarily blinding the puffs and serpents but things when downhill from there. The students had spread out through the entire length and breadth of the chamber which meant that not all of them were blinded by the solaris. When the rest of the Lions and Claws came in, fumbling in the dark, the serpents and badgers let them become used to the darkness. After about a minute, they turned the lights on and half the lions and claws were down with the first volley. From there it went back and forth. They formed pairs of two and one would cast while the other would defend. This strategy was good but for those who knew each other's moves. Harry could see that each had a distinct style and that they mismatched at times because they were not in tune with each other.

When the dead were counted, it was half their strength. If it were a real battle, it would have been a devastating blow. After everyone had been enervated, Harry stood at the head of the crowd, "Okay. Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets. This is the fabled chamber all around you. There are four entrances to it but the most known one has been sealed by Professor Dumbledore forever so that no one can enter that way. One is my private entrance and is guarded by some nasty jinxes and hexes which only I can overcome. The third is located where the Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs entered. The fourth entrance is on the second floor where the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws met me. Now, as you see, I staged a battle between all of you. This was to test what you would do when you do not get to make strategies but have to run headfirst into a battle. As I have seen, most of you have no experience with fighting in pairs. I have seen pairs which can fight together as if they are one in body and mind. They know each other's spells and moves. They don't even need to say out loud what needs to be done. For example in the battle in the atrium, I remember the General and Lady Longbottom fighting together with their backs to each other. Lady Longbottom defended them from any attack which came at them while Lord Longbottom blasted away their enemies. If any dared to come close or somehow evaded him then they died at Lady Longbottom's hands. That is how good I want you to be. Your reflexes should be so quick that your foe doesn't have the time to realise before he is disarmed or dead."

Colin asked him, "Will you show us what that looks like? The 'doesn't have the time to realise' bit?"

Harry nodded, "Alright. Three of you come and face me while the others stay back."

Colin, Rupert and Gwendolyn stepped forward. Harry looked at each of them straight in the eye and said, "Start when you are ready."

He saw the barest of movements from Gwendolyn and his wand was out in an instant. Before she knew, her wand was flying out of her hand. Rupert had his wand out but the incantation died on his lips as a filppendo hex flipped him quite a few times before he fell hard on the ground landing on his butt. Colin had sent a stunner at Harry but Harry waved it aside and before Colin could fire another spell, he found himself hanging upside down, his wand out of his hand.

When he was done, everyone was looking at him with awe. It seemed that he could do whatever he wanted with them. As they were still marvelling at the feat, he called names from among those gathered, "Hermione, Ron, Terry, Mandy, Neville, Fred and George, Daphne and Conrad, you are to help the students find their perfect partners. When they are matched, you will divide yourselves into 2 teams of 5 each and help them tune to each other. In your turn, you all will be helped by others. Now set to it."

Since everyone was to do it, Harry walked to Susan, "You my lady are saddled with me."

She fluttered her eye lashes, "And that is the way it should be, my charming prince."

The aim of this manoeuvre was to help the students know how to fight with a partner. This practice went for half an hour before Harry called a halt to it, "Alright everyone, that was good practice. We will practice it again next time to make sure that you know what to do in a particular situation or how you can work together."

**The tale of failures**

The Dark Lord was presiding over a meeting of his inner circle. He had insisted that Snape be present at the meeting. He had a few things that he wanted to ask. The first and foremost thing on his mind was the Order of the Snow Leopard. They had snatched certain victory from his followers quite a few times. No one was certain how that happened. If not for them, Bella would still be alive with Mulciber. They were also responsible for the failure of the ambush in Cardiff. The 10 who had been killed in the attack at Longbottom manor would have been saved or perhaps killed at least one of the Longbottoms.

He began in his high, cruel voice. "Severus, I hope that you know the identities of the members of this Order of the Snow Leopard which has been a thorn in our side recently", he inquired.

Severus gathered his thoughts for a moment before he said, "My lord, their identities are a matter of Ministry secrecy. General Longbottom has it secured under the Official Secrets Act and The War Act. Anyone divulging them would be punished as a traitor. The only person who can be sure of their identities is only the General. Under the present circumstances, I have not learned who they are."

Malfoy, who was still not back to his former state of health and looked very frail and pale, said, "The Daily Prophet has suggested that students of Hogwarts are members of this order."

Severus drawled, "And of course The Daily Prophet has another reporter lying around somewhere who can transform into a bug and spy for them!" He turned to Voldemort then, "My Lord, my information comes from Dumbledore himself who is not happy with this order intervening everywhere and taking so many lives. The problem is that many of the ministry officials are against him at the moment and would not agree with something that he wishes."

Malfoy tried to interrupt again, "But the Aurors..."

Voldemort glared at him, "You dare question the veracity of information that Severus brings to us at mortal peril to himself, Lucius? The Old fool always knows everything that is going on so it is reasonable that what Severus told is the truth. What else do we know about this order?"

"My lord, this Order came out of nowhere one night to foil our raid at Bones Manor. Since then, they have always appeared at some ambush or other. It is widely believed that the members of this Order were responsible for killing Bellatrix and Mulciber Sr. They were also supposed to be present at the battle at Hogsmead but they didn't turn up."

He digested the information that was being given to him before turning to Rookwood, "What can you tell me about their numbers?"

Rookwood said uncertainly, "I have heard different accounts. It appears that they have more than 2 members. Mostly the same 2 have been seen at every attack but at times, there were more of them. They were quite able to keep your forces at bay and they did when they could."

Voldemort was lost in thought. This new Order was an unknown entity. It may contain 10 members or 100. Its members may be British or foreigners. Also they had no compunctions about killing. Their moral compass wasn't hinged like Dumbledore and they knew their priorities. To end this Order, they would need to know the identities of its members.

He turned to Severus again, "What are they planning?"

"From what I learnt in a meeting, the General has stepped up the training of his forces and they are being told to kill. I have heard that Alastor Moody was put in charge of making sure that they are able to do what is asked of them."

That was an idea which amused Voldemort. Since he had taken this mantel, the wizarding world had feared even his name. Parents used to scare their children with his name. To think that the sheep of the wizarding world would fear nothing was something that felt strange. He decided to test their mettle. Before that he needed to spread some terror and regain some of the old respect.

He turned to Macnair, "What of the Dementors? Where are they?"

"My Lord, the dementors have returned to Azkaban fortress where they are awaiting your orders. Once ordered, they will do your bidding."

Voldemort spoke coldly while his eyes danced with malevolence, "Send them in. Tell them I want them to attack Hampstead and kill as many as they can. Wizards or muggles, it does not matter. I want death to dance in the streets."

It was decided that Macnair would let the Dementors have free rein in Hampstead but Voldemort had told him to report only to him about the date of the attack. He figured there was a spy in the order. To evade him, it was necessary that any communication between them was kept away from the ears of everyone except for those who needed to know.

**Three days later**

Harry was having a brutal practice session with his Quidditch team. They had been working for more than two hours yet Angelina was nowhere near being in the mood to bring it to an end. The twins had been grumbling yet they kept playing for none of them wanted to incur her wrath. For that matter, Harry was not very fond of getting told off by her.

Ron had been having the hardest of it. His brothers had decided that perhaps having the keeper retired would end the practice session sooner so they had sent quite a few Bludgers his way. He had been caught twice and had left practice about 15 minutes ago after hhe begged-off to go and work on some essays.

The chasers had been alternating their turns and they worked perfectly as a team. They had been able to get a decent number of goals past the keeper but many more had been stopped.

The beaters had been having fun. Their job was the easiest so they targeted anyone they liked. The chasers had a hard time navigating through the Bludgers which were flying around the pitch.

Harry had been looking for the snitch whenever Angelina released it but other than that there was nothing for him to do. For the last ten minutes, he had been playing keeper. It was a tough job but it had the thrill of flying however Harry knew he wasn't meant for it. In general, he had been perfectly happy with his practice so far. If he kept playing at this level, there would be no problem for him in the match and the scouts would definitely notice him though he knew Puddlemere would be looking to bag him before anyone else could. Having the world's best seeker and the boy-who-lived would be like a dream come true for them.

Telling Angelina that he had some errands to run, he dismounted from his broom when a patronus (a bear) flew up to him and spoke in Neville's voice, "Dementor attack in Hampstead. Meet me at the gates."

It took only a minute for Harry to fly to his dorm, trade his Quidditch robes and borrowed Keeper's pads for his battle armour and fly out to the gates. Neville, Ron and Hermione with Susan had been waiting at the gates where they saw him, flying toward them with his forehead pressing against his broom handle, pushing for it's greatest speed. In a single fluid motion, he pulled the broom to a screeching halt, leapt to the ground beside them and pocketed the now miniscule broom in his robes. He asked Neville quickly, "How are we getting there?"

Neville held out a rope to him, "This is our portkey. Hold on to it and we'll be going."

After a minute, they felt the familiar tug behind their navels and they were off.

**Dementors demented**

The group appeared in a side-lane in Hampstead which was dark. As they all found firm footing, they were up with their wands out but there was nothing before them. Harry frowned, "Did the portkey bring us to the wrong place?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, we're in the right place. This is Hampstead alright. This is where I grew up. There's the library just across the road where I used to get books to read."

Susan was talking to Harry, "Then where are the dementors? Even if their attack was over, there should be some signs."

At that moment, they could see the sky in the distance being lit up with the ethereal glow of a patronus which was huge. It took the form of a wolf before sputtering out. Harry ran in that direction shouting over his shoulder, "Follow me."

They all took it at a run and arrived at the square where the attack was happening. It was a scene from a post- apocalyptic world. There were muggles lying in the streets, vehicles upturned or run into the side of buildings and Dementors all over the place. A pram was rolling down the street. Harry summoned it to him to keep it out of harm's way. To his horror, the child in the pram had already lost his soul. Rage started building in Harry. He had to clamp down hard on his mental shields to keep his head clear.

A quick glance revealed that a team of 20 wizards were all over the place. They were trying to cast the patronus charm to repel the dementors but they were not being very effective. The chilling desperation of losing all hope and joy was all about them. Harry recognised Remus, Sirius, Nymphadora and Moody among them. Perhaps the members of the Order of the Phoenix were present with the Ministry and trying to control them but they were failing miserably.

As he watched, one of the dementors reached into a car to a child. Its rotting skeletal hands grabbing forcing the child's mouth open, preparing to administer the kiss. Anger reared up in Harry's eyes and he levelled his wand forward and roared, "Pitradev Sanrakshanam".

The mighty snow leopard burst out of his wand and ran towards the Dementor head-butting it so hard that it went sprawling. That also attracted the attention of others toward him. As a flock of the wretched creatures floated towards him, words of a witch came to his mind, "We don't use the patronus spell Harry. We kill them."

He raised his wand above his head and turned to his friends, "As soon as you see me kill the first dementor, conjure your patroni. Ron, you go to Sirius and tell him to ask everyone to do the same. Conjure patroni and remain around me. While I am doing what I need to do, I need them to keep their patroni around me. Is that clear?"

As soon as Ron ran towards Sirius, Harry motioned for his friends to step back. Raising his wand above his head, he started moving it in a circular motion while incanting at the top of his voice. As the incantation was finished, he loudly cried again, "Danav Sanharak Kshanprabha Aavhanam (Demon Slayer Kshanprabha, I summon you)."

Suddenly his wand started vibrating loudly but he held tightly onto it. It looked like he would pass out as his face turned white with exertion but before it could happen, lightning flashed in the sky and it descended on his wand taking the shape of a serrated blade made of lightning.

The dementors who had been flying at him sensed something was wrong but it was too late. By then, as the first Dementor was almost upon him, the others had their patroni out. He was the only one they could have gone to and here they were. Harry lunged upon the dementor instead of waiting for it to cover the gap between them and the blade passed through the dementor like a hot knife goes through butter. It burst apart with a muffled sound. Harry however was not waiting. He had again swung his sword and a tendril of lightning burst forth snaring another one. The dementor could not do anything before it was impaled upon the blade and existed no more.

From then it was a blood bath. The dementors could not help but be drawn to the blade or dragged to it. They tried to swarm him once or twice but the patroni kept him safe. Whenever one got too near without being killed, it would be chased away by a wild cat, a Jack Russell terrier, a bear, an otter, a dog or a wolf.

It went on for about 10 minutes during which almost 100 dementors who had come on this foolhardy mission were destroyed. At one time, they had sought to fly away but the tendrils of lightning bound them in their place until Harry could finish them off.

Finally as the last Dementor was dead, the sword disappeared abruptly and Harry's hand went limp with the wand clattering to the ground. Susan picked it up and pocketed it to return to him later. Sirius caught him as he could see that Harry had been swaying dangerously on his feet. He asked, "Are you all right son?"

Harry didn't even have the energy to speak properly. He wheezed, "Tired. Too exhausting. Didn't even tell me this could happen."

Tonks, who looked like she had left her jaw on the pavement asked him, "Is there anything that you can't kill?"

Moody growled, "Leave him be, Tonks. The lad saved a lot of muggles." He then turned to Harry, "Alright there, Peverell?" But Harry did not answer.

Just then pops were heard and many others started apparating in starting with Arthur who was followed by Bill and Charlie. Frank came next with Alice and Amelia came with ten more Aurors and all they found were a group of wizards and far too many muggles whose souls were taken by the dementors.

Alice rushed to them, "Are you both fine?"

Neville answered, "We are fine mother. Just a dementor attack."

Amelia was talking to Susan, "How did you come to be here, Susie? What happened here?"

Susan couldn't speak what had happened. It was something she had never even heard about. Also the patronus spell had taken its toll on her. She was trying not to show it but she was frightfully pale and feeling weak in her knees. She just managed to hold on, "I don't know what happened, Auntie. I mean we were fighting dementors for a moment and just out of nowhere Harry started killing them."

Frank asked incredulously, "Killing them? You mean driving them off don't you?"

Sirius, who was now levitating Harry's limp form on a stretcher, proudly replied, "No. Killing them. Harry killed all of them. I saw it happen with my own eyes yet I still have trouble believing it."

Moody who had been calling for the clean-up crew, an obliviating squad and the members of the Department for Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures walked up to him, "Aye General. Saw it happen with my own eyes. The lad was something killing those fiends."

Before Frank could ask why Harry was unconscious, Ron and Hermione who were being fussed over by Arthur and Bill, swayed on their feet and crumbled. Susan and Neville followed suit soon making Alice and Amelia cry in dismay. Harry, well Harry had gone to sleep as soon as Sirius had caught him.

Frank turned to Sirius, "What happened to them, Sirius?"

"I believe that they have all fainted due to exhaustion caused by the patronus spells, Frank", said Dumbledore who had come up sometime during the conversation. He continued, "If you don't need them for anything at the moment, I will be happy to take them to Hogwarts infirmary where they will be kept for the night."

Frank readily agreed. Albus left with Arthur supporting Ronald, Bill supporting Hermione, Alice having Neville and Emmeline taking charge of Susan. Amelia wanted to go but she knew Susan was not in immediate danger. Due to her duty as the head of the DMLE, she had to stay here. A lot of muggles were worse than dead and the General needed all the help he could get.

As the students were led away, Frank turned to his Aurors, "Whatever passed here this night should not be told to anyone especially about Lord Peverell's Dementor slaying abilities. If a word of it goes out, I swear by Merlin that I will throw the might of the ministry against that person."

Frank never threatened anyone so his threat had the desired effect. The Aurors and everyone at that place swore an oath to not say a word about it. As they were dismissed, Frank had Moody and Amelia stay back.

After raising a privacy ward about them, he turned to them, "I want a report of this attack by morning tomorrow on my desk. I want the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to find where the Dementors are hiding as of now. If Harry can kill them then we should be done with that threat before we take on Tom Riddle for the final battle. Amelia you are to see that the department finds their position within the next week and then Alastor, it will be your duty to prepare for an all out attack on them. And no, you will not be leading this attack."

As they both nodded, he continued, "I also want the department to tell me about how many Dementors resided at the Azkaban Island before it fell and how many have died. We won't want to miscalculate and be assured from their side."

As they nodded, he dismissed them and left for the office of the muggle Prime Minister. Frank hated to be the bearer of bad news but there was nothing that he could do except fighting back and people died in wars.

**Hogwarts**

The students were brought to the Hospital wing straight away. Since they were in no mortal danger, there had been no need to raise the alarm yet Dumbledore found Hagrid and Vikram waiting for them at the gates when they appeared.

As they appeared, Vikram rushed forward, "Albus, what happened?"

Dumbledore looked at him keenly as if trying to decipher his secrets by merely gazing at him, "Please report to my office as soon as I am done taking these students here to the infirmary. They ran into a dementor attack in Hampstead. They are exhausted from trying to chase them away."

He nodded, "As you say, headmaster."

When they finally reached the infirmary, Poppy Pomfrey was not there. Sirius after having laid Harry into the bed named after him, went up to her office's door, "Poppy, we need you."

The door opened a moment later and Madam Pomfrey stepped out, her left hand on her hip and her wand twirling in her right hand. She gave a cross look to Sirius making him shudder, "have you hurt yourself again, idiot boy?"

Dumbledore diffused the tension before it escalated, "Poppy, it isn't Sirius who needs your attention. These students (he gestured to those who were sleeping in their beds) were in a Dementor attack. They have exhausted themselves with the effort of chasing them away."

Madam Pomfrey looked at the said students and said resignedly, "The usual ones. Can't stay out of trouble, can they?"

She went on to examine them and found nothing wrong with any of them except severe magical exhaustion. She enervated them one by one and administered large amounts of chocolate which they washed down with rejuvenating draught followed by sleep potion. She however faltered when she came upon Susan and turned to Dumbledore, "Headmaster, her magical energy is almost spent. It looks like she has been involved in heavy spell practice despite having been cautioned about it. I fear I will have to keep her here for the next full week."

In fact, Susan had come very close to dying of magical exhaustion that night because she hadn't yet fully recovered from the injury she sustained in the last battle. The regimen of potion had been over for more than a week but she had been cautioned against over-exerting herself. Contrary to that, she kept doing it and as a result, she ended up in the infirmary again.

Madam Pomfrey diagnosed Harry at last and the result had her lips trembling. Albus noticed this and asked her, "What happened, Poppy? Is everything alright with Harry?"

She turned to him and said in a shaky voice, "Headmaster, my readings suggest that he used too much of his magic within a matter of minutes and he was exhausted due to the rapid consumption of his energy. If he had kept that barrage up, he would have gone into a Magical Coma again. He will need complete rest about 4 days before he will feel up to his previous strength again. I am not going to let him out of the hospital wing until then."

Dumbledore nodded, "if you must, keep them as your guests for as long as you please".

**Unknown Castle**

Voldemort was overseeing the training of his men. The German was unorthodox but effective. He was teaching them to last in combat and how to gain an advantage over their enemies. Stealth was something that his followers had never learnt and he was teaching them to be stealthy. One important thing that he had done was to sort out those who knew some advanced curses in one group while sorting others in a group who knew the basic curses. Since then, he had divided them into two and had the Lestrange brothers look over the training of those who were acquainted with the basic curses.

He knew that his followers were inept because Hogwarts could not find someone who was competent enough to teach the students. Since Dumbledore had denied him what he saw as rightfully his, he had cursed that position so that no one else could keep it. He had tied the longevity of the curse to his life and as long as he lived, the curse would remain active. No teacher that the old fool had found had lasted for more than a year. Some died rather horribly; some had their whole life's reputations in tatters and one even turned out to be a werewolf.

He also had the time to think about the blood war. It was an idiotic decision if Voldemort himself said so. Blood wars ended only after blood had been spilt and it was something that the light valued. He knew that others may think that Harold Peverell would be leading them but he knew the truth. They were being led by Dumbledore and the General. While the General was a man of such a disposition that he would not fear to make blood spill but Dumbledore valued such things. Furthermore, the boy had no means to carry out his proclamation of the blood war. He was powerful enough and he had students who knew how to fight but they could not be as brutal as his own followers were. Harold Peverell had sealed his doom and that of others who were foolish enough to stand by him in his proclamation of the blood war.

Today his mind was fixated upon the Dementors. Macnair had told him that this was the day the Dementors were going to carry out his orders. He eagerly waited for some good news that the Dementors had again established the terror of his name among the sheep of the wizarding world. A few visits to prominent wizarding families in person would fully restore it to its previous state.

He was fidgeting because the Dementors were supposed to have returned by now. They had been asked to wreck enough havoc to have the ministry running and then to return to the Island. May be the fiends got carried away and forgot to do as he asked. No matter, Macnair would make sure that they knew what happened to those who crossed him.

Suddenly he felt the wards chime, signalling someone's arrival in the castle. He straightened in his seat and waited for the newcomer to come and find him. As it turned out, it was Severus Snape who had come to make his report to Voldemort, "My Lord, I bring news.".

Voldemort said, "What news do you bring, Severus?"

"My Lord, the old fool had me in his office. He told me about the dementor attack", said Snape slowly and with enough apprehension in his voice.

Voldemort drawled, "I guess he knows about the attack by now. What was he agitated about?"

"My lord, he told me that the ministry had killed the Dementors who were sent to attack Hampstead", said Snape simply and left it there for Voldemort to hear and ponder about.

"Killed!", Voldemort exclaimed loudly, "How can they kill dementors? Who can have this skill?"

Severus shook his head, "My lord, I have no information about these things but he indeed told me that the General had sworn everyone to silence about it. No one who was there can speak about it without risking their lives."

"Leave me, Severus. Go and find Macnair and send him to me. We need to do something and do it fast", he ordered curtly.

As Severus left, Voldemort contemplated on what he had just heard. Someone had killed all the Dementors that he had sent. He had never heard of anyone killing dementors before, but if it existed then it was all the more reason for him to keep the remaining creatures safe. Macnair had shown good judgment when he sent only 100 Dementors. They would divide the rest of them, keeping half at the Azkaban island while the rest will be harboured somewhere that the ministry can't reach them. His only consolation from the situation would be to see how many muggles had been left soulless before the dementors were destroyed.

For now, he needed to make some house calls and see if people were amenable to bend their knee before him or see their head rolling in the mud. He was partial to either of the treatments.

**Headmaster's office**

Vikram, as he was asked, entered Dumbledore's office, "You called me, headmaster?"

Dumbledore pointed him to a seat across from him, "I believe you know why I have called you here?"

Vikram nodded, "Of course I know. You are interested about the dementor slaying spell. Aren't you?"

Dumbledore nodded, "Yes, I am. It would be a handy spell if everyone knew it. Then we wouldn't have to fear them."

Vikram shook his head as he chuckled, "Albus, I am not at liberty to teach anyone that spell. However there are a few things I can tell you about it. The spell is of such a variety that it can be cast only by someone as powerful as Harry, you, Neville or likewise. You can cast it as well as Mr. Longbottom can but there are so many more who simply lack the power to perform it. For any average witch or wizard, it will make them pass out before they are able to even summon it. The spell actually conjures a sword of lightning which can kill dementors but it requires great power to be able to hold on to the sword and as such, it puts a great drain on anyone's magic. You heard what Madam Pomfrey said about it. Harry's magical core is perhaps bigger than everyone in Wizarding Britain right now but even he was drained in a few minutes. Think of how much energy it requires to cast a fully corporeal patronus and then multiply it by 10 times. That is what it requires to keep the sword going. Dementors are irresistibly drawn to it. If there are several dementors about, then one has to have many wizards about him who can cast a patronus without passing out from the effort to save him if anything goes horribly wrong. I hope you get the picture now."

Albus sighed, "I guess it was wistful thinking after all. Can you perform the spell?"

Vikram shook his head, "Barely. I did it once and kept it going for a full minute. Thereafter I spent the next week in bed passed out due to exhaustion. In fact Lord Harsh does not allow this spell to be taught to everyone. To think he allowed it means he has complete faith in Harry and his abilities. The only ones that I know can cast this spell successfully are Lord Harsh and two other mystics whose primary work is to train other recruits. Fortunately we never had too many run-ins with Dementors over the years."

**Hogwarts**

Next morning, the students were dismayed to find that neither Harry nor Neville turned up for their morning running session. For that matter, not even Ron, Hermione or Susan were there either. This puzzled them greatly but it puzzled Hannah most who was the one that had to answer questions from the students.

As they all gathered beside the lake for the morning run, she stood firm before them and addressed them thus, "I don't know where the others are but we will continue doing what we have been. I believe they are running some errands so they are not here. For this morning, Fred and George will oversee our morning runs and make sure that it is not lacking in any way."

The twins selected Daphne, Hannah, Terry and Mandy to help them. That morning practice was different because the twins kept using prank spells on the students. Those who were caught were deemed to be out and had to start again. One of the pranks would make a person turn red, another would have them grow antlers, and another would have them become invisible and so on. This went on for an hour during which the students felt that they had been tested in different ways than usual.

As soon as they were gathered for breakfast, Daphne cornered Hannah, "Out with it, Abbott. Where are they?"

Hannah's lips quivered, "I don't know Daphne. Neville told me that they were going to take care of some urgent business and that it might take time for them to return. We will know more once we have visited the headmaster."

Daphne nodded, "Alright. We are going to talk to him as soon as we are done with breakfast."

Since most of their group was absent, people were sitting according to their preference for breakfast. Hannah was at the Hufflepuff table with Daphne when Astoria slipped into the seat beside her elder sister, "Worried about Harry, Daph?"

Daphne's head snapped up, "What do you know, midget?"

Astoria smirked, "Oh they are in the hospital wing. Shelly Burton from Ravenclaw saw them this morning as she was being released from her care."

Daphne asked her hungrily, "Did she tell why they were there?"

Astoria shook her head, "Shelly is too much of a coward to approach them. You know that group scares us little children. I mean so much power walking together can intimidate anyone."

Daphne nodded, "You will get your price for your information, Tori. Now leave us in peace so that we can have some breakfast."

Astoria grumbled, "no one values little sisters anymore."

The owls had started arriving by then and a tawny owl landed in front of Daphne. She placed a couple of bronze knuts in the pouch attached to the owl's leg and retrieved the paper. There was a big story splashed across the front page that got her attention:

_**"Dementors Destroyed in Hampstead**_

_This headline may shock some of our readers. Others may think it is an early April Fools joke but we assure you, this is real. Late last night, the ministry issued a press release. _

_An undisclosed number of the fiendish creatures known as dementors perpetrated an attack on the muggle citizens of Hampstead last evening. By the time Ministry Aurors arrived, 30 muggles, including women and children were already worse than dead. The attack known as The Dementor's Kiss had left them bereft of their souls._

_Ministry forces acted quickly, using the Patronis charm to drive the fiends away from the muggles. They were being overwhelmed by the Dementor's superior numbers when The Order of the Snow Leopard appeared on the scene._

_As our regular readers know, the Order of the Snow leopard, with the notable exception of the attack at Hogsmead, have shown up in the nick of time to thwart many recent death eater attacks. One of the Aurors, on the condition of anonymity, said, 'They just arrived out of nowhere like they always do and started killing Dementors left and right. One of them kept killing them one after another while the rest of the team shielded him.'_

_To our woe, no concrete evidence as to the identities of the members of this order has come forth as of yet. This reporter tried to contact the ministry but the General remained unavailable for comment. The question still remains as to whether the Order of the Snow Leopard isn't a band of future dark wizards who will prove to be more dangerous than Tom Riddle also known as Lord Voldemort."_

Daphne's eyes were ready to bulge out of their sockets yet she kept her calm as she turned to Hannah, "Well, We're just going to have to go see them now."

Hannah agreed, "Yes, an absolute must."

**Infirmary**

In the infirmary, Dumbledore was talking to Madam Pomfrey, "Why are they still asleep, Poppy? If not Harry and Susan, the others should have been up and about by now."

Madam Pomfrey looked smug, "Oh, they would be awake by now alright if I hadn't shoved extra strong doses of sleeping potion down their throats. These students whine a lot and I don't want to face a bunch of whiners until I have some breakfast in me."

Dumbledore chuckled, "If you will, please enervate them now?"

Within minutes they were all up but Madam Pomfrey made them remain in their beds while she went over each one with her wand, checking them. When she found that everything was all right with them, she turned to Dumbledore, "Headmaster, Miss Granger and Mr. Longbottom and Mr. Weasley are free to go though they must not over-exert themselves for the next two days. Mr. Peverell and Mess Bones will have to remain here until I say so."

Harry advised her from his bed, "please let me go too, Madam Pomfrey. I'm concerned that if you don't, my friends will turn this place into King's cross station."

She turned to him and smirked, "Oh I would love to see them try to get past my barrier at the door to the infirmary."

Dumbledore, understanding the gravity of the situation, said, "Poppy, if you can let Harry go, I promise he will not over-exert himself. There are a lot of things which cannot be done without him. I promise he will come in twice a day for check-ups."

Poppy got a mulish expression but couldn't go against the word of Dumbledore. She voiced her concerns to the Headmaster, "When I say that he is dangerously magically exhausted, I mean it." She turned to Harry, "No spell work until I clear you. You don't want to spend another week here in a magical coma." She addressed Dumbledore again, "I'll let him go on your word, Headmaster. But, if he does any spell work or fails to report in, I hold you responsible."

Harry piped up, "really, Madam Pomfrey, I still feel too weary to lift a wand. Besides, I will spend my every spare minute here, so long as you hold a certain strawberry blonde ransom."

That made the others laugh. Susan blushed deep red knowing he was alluding to her.

Daphne and Hannah had reached the hospital wing by then and Albus left saying, "I will leave you to meet with your friends for now, Harry. Come to my office this evening."

* * *

**A/N- I have been thinking that despite being connected through a story for last 1 year, we all know nothing about each other. So I am willing to know more about you all, my friends.**

**as for myself, I am Yatharth from U.P., India.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Ministry of Magic**

It had been a long night since the Dementor attack. As requested, the report was on his desk when the General arrived at work in the morning. It was clearly marked Top Secret, Minister's Eyes Only. Frank tapped the seal on the parchment with his wand and the scroll unfurled for him. He scanned down the document rapidly, reviewing it. After he was done reviewing it, he scrawled a hasty memo. He reviewed the memo once, then tapping it with his wand it folded itself into a paper aeroplane and went winging off to find the Head Auror. While he waited for Master Auror Moody to answer his summons, he scanned the headlines of the morning edition of The Daily Prophet.

It didn't take long for the grizzled veteran to show up. The Master Auror let himself in and stood at ease before the General's desk. Minister Longbottom promptly placed the partially read newspaper to one side and picked up the report his right-hand-man had sent him. He looked up from the report before he said, "Alastor, thanks for coming so quickly. Won't you please close the door and take a seat?"

Moody nodded, "Yes sir." In the twinkling of an eye, the door was closed and Moody pulled up a chair before the desk of his commander in chief.

The general began, "I have read your report, of course. I want you to tell me in your own words, what happened here?"

Moody stared at a spot just above and to the left of General Longbottom's shoulder as he recited, "30 muggles lost their lives before help could reach them minister. As you know, not all of our Aurors are proficient at casting the Patronus charm so many were having trouble until the Order of the Phoenix turned up with its members. They tried to control the fiends. The lad arrived with a number of his friends when our combined forces were barely able to contain the Dementors. I have no idea who sent for him."

The General nodded, "That was me. I sent my elf to Neville to inform him and Harry. I understand that young Master Peverell repelled a force of about 100 Dementors two years ago. He's come a long way since then. It's hard to admit, but we needed his help." He made contact with Moody's beady natural eye, the disconcerting, bright-blue, magical eye was revolving slowly, scanning the area for who knows what, "Now tell me about the Dementor slaying."

Moody hesitated, making a nod towards the door. The general, guessing at his meaning said confidently, "You needn't concern yourself. I have seen to the privacy wards personally."

Moody nodded his head firmly in approval before he answered, "I don't know about the spell, Minister. I've never seen anything like it. My best guess is that it's some arcane magic that has not been seen in this land in living memory." As he began to describe it, Moody became animated, "When the lad cast it, the evening sky lit up for a moment. Then a bolt of lightning cracked that came to rest on his wand, in the shape of a serrated blade. Then a lot of things happened all at once. Everyone around him cast their Patronus charms, the Dementors seemed to be irresistibly drawn to the blade. The blade seemed to act of its own accord, slaying any Dementor that came within its reach. Every Dementor that made contact with the spell burst and vanished. If the things tried to rush the lad in a mass, his friends used their Patronus charms to only let one or two come close. The ones who were permitted in met their fate. We joined in to prevent the Dementors from swarming and overcoming the lad's friends. In what seemed to me to be a few moments, them soul-sucking monsters were all destroyed. I have a feeling that this spell was created for just that purpose."

Frank took a moment to re-read a paragraph of the report in his hand before he looked up and asked, "Do you think there's any chance we can persuade him to teach us that spell?"

Moody shook his head, "The lad was in no condition to talk after the battle, sir. Since then, I've received a report from Dumbledore. Not only is the lad sworn to secrecy, but there are only a handful of wizards in the world who can keep that spell going for any length of time without passing out from the effort. Even if the lad could teach it to us, none of us could use it. Even the lad could only keep it going for a few minutes before he passed out from exhaustion."

**The Unknown Castle**

Macnair entered the castle at a shambling run. He fell at Voldemort's feet, "My lord, they have killed the Dementors."

Voldemort drawled, "I would punish you for bringing such news to my ears, but I have already received this news. You are late with your information, Macnair. I know they are killed. I can guess what they will try to do next. My folly that I played this card too soon. But worry not for this will instil the fear of me in their hearts yet again. You have a job to do, Macnair."

Macnair bowed very low to him, "I am yours to command, my lord."

**Hospital wing, Hogwarts**

Harry was sitting at Susan's bedside. She was still confined to bed and he was talking to her in a very low voice so as not to disturb the third year with a broken arm in a bed on the other side of the room. The student wasn't even trying to be discrete but was straining hard to hear every word of what was being said.

"Harry, why do you think I am getting exhausted so quickly?", she asked him worriedly.

"Sue, I'm no healer but it seems to me that the problem is that you have over-exerted yourself often since your discharge from the hospital wing after the battle of Hogsmead. I know you have been practicing 'til you drop despite having been told not to do so. Wounds and such may be cured within days but some injuries that don't show can take a lot longer. You were not doing yourself any favours by running yourself into the ground every night", he admonished her.

She blushed, "I didn't think you were going to find out about that. I was worried that I was not doing my best so I over-exerted myself at times." She looked Harry in the eye earnestly, "I promise it was the last time. I will abide by Madame Pomfrey's instructions from now on."

Harry clasped one of her hands in his and said, "Sue, know this that I love you. I don't see life for me without you. If something were to happen to you, I won't be able to bear the pain. Please don't do anything that would endanger you again or I promise that I will put you in a full body bind and never release you."

**Headmaster's office**

After the obligatory fussing over him, Madame Pomfrey decided to let Harry out of the Infirmary. Physically, there was nothing wrong with him. But, she gave him a strict charge for no wand work for at least two days or he would answer to her for it. With Susan being an inmate there, Harry was taking every minute that he wasn't in class to be there anyway. After dinner, as requested by the Headmaster, he made his way up to Dumbledore's office.

Albus was in conversation with Frank, Moody, Amelia, Sirius and Remus when Harry entered.

Albus pointed towards one of the vacant seats and waited for Frank to speak. Frank after making sure that Harry was seated started talking, "I assume you know Harry that about 30 muggles lost their lives in Hampstead last night. We have a task ahead for you but I want to make sure that you are feeling up to it before I can ask."

Harry nodded, "I won't be casting any spells for a couple of days, General, but otherwise, I'm fine. Please do go on."

Frank nodded, "Harry, I had set the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures on the Dementor's trail and they found them at the Azkaban Island. As per their reckoning, there must be about 100 Dementors at the Island and you killed about 100 of them last evening. The Department is certain that there were more than 300 Dementors at Azkaban before the break-in occurred. Their numbers have likely increased since then."

Harry asked him, "So, what you're saying is that there are over 100 dementors unaccounted for? What do you think happened to them?"

Albus took up the narrative, "Based on certain information that I have, it appears that after you slew so many of them, Tom had the rest of them divided and moved half of them to a secret location. Or worse, it is a very real possibility that he set them loose all over Wizarding Britain. If that has happened, the muggles don't even know how much danger they're in."

Harry nodded gravely, "So what can I do about it?"

Frank answered, "For now, we cannot do anything about the ones that are at some secret location. For those who remain at the Azkaban Island, however, we can kill them so that he won't have them on his side in the final battle. For any that are out in the open, the wizarding patrols will force them to return to the Island."

Harry nodded, "Are you asking me to go and kill all of them?"

Frank shrugged, "Unless you can think of a better way, yes. All the rest of us can do is drive them and herd them and, when faced with actual Dementors, many of us can't even do that. If you are not feeling up to it then you can always refuse."

Harry nodded, "Of course, General, I will do it but it is very risky. I will need help from you to reduce that risk as much as possible."

Frank nodded, "Yes, what do you need?"

"I will need as many Aurors as you can provide who are effective with the Patronus spell. I want only those around me who can do it and not falter. They must do as I ask them and not ask me questions."

Frank nodded, "Alright. Whom do you have in mind?"

Harry thought for a few minutes before he said, "From the Ministry I want Master Auror Moody, Nymphadora, Kingsley, Robards and Sirius. I also need Remus, Neville, Daphne Greengrass, Ron and Hermione. I would also welcome as many more as you or Master Auror Moody can recommend."

Albus asked him, "My boy, what about Susan?"

Harry shook his head, "She is still recovering from a fatal illness. When she tested her strength in the face of 100 Dementors, she wound up confined to a bed. I want her to be at her full strength before I will let her in a battle with me."

Amelia nodded, "Very thoughtful, Harry. But do you think Susie will allow you to go by yourself and not interfere?"

Harry looked at her warily, "Auntie, we don't need to tell her. She is in the Hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey can keep her there for a few more days. By the time she hears about it, the battle will be over."

Frank nodded, "Agreed. Now when should we do this?"

"Four days from now, General. I need that time to find some answers to a few problems and I'll want to be at my full strength in any event."

**The Chamber of Secrets**

That evening there was another battle being staged. This time they were given time to strategize before they were to attack. The lions and the serpents were one team. The badgers and claws were on the other team. Hannah, Ernie, Terry and Mandy were the leaders of the claws and badgers while the twins and Daphne and Conrad were the leaders of the lions and serpents. None of those who had participated in the Dementor battle were allowed because they were still recovering. They were not to over-exert themselves and Harry for one wasn't going to ignore Madam Pomfrey's warning.

The battle was more about learning team work, to know each other's moves than to learn to be more effective together. They could fight but they couldn't fight in pairs which was necessary. The Aurors always insisted upon this policy among themselves. They always went in pairs where they knew their roles, their plans and everything that they needed to do.

The battle was entirely non-lethal but whoever was hit could not be enervated or get up again to take part in the war. This was to teach them the thing about battles and if someone's partner died, they had to fight by themselves. Those who died during the battle would have to run extra laps the next day at the lake.

The twins decided on a simple strategy. They assigned pairs and they would engage the members of the opposite team. They won't attack first but wait for them to make the first strike. They would subsequently choose their targets and engage them in battle. Once they won, they could move on to others.

The battle was one-sided from the start but there were problems. The proposed partners didn't know what their partner's favourite spells or who was to cast and who would defend. They also didn't know what to do when a spell came at them so many of them fell to such mistakes but there were some who showed some skill at this. The twins for instance were working as a well oiled unit and they both attacked when possible otherwise one would defend while another would attack. This went on for half an hour and Harry pronounced himself satisfied. He then set them to practice the piercing hex.

Most of them had been fairly accomplished at casting it but the trouble was that they could not hit the intended target every time. The hex was great but opposed to other spells it needed pin-point precision which others lacked. With practice, they were coming along. After about half an hour, he sent them to their dorms and then said to the chamber in general, "Come out Professor."

Vikram materialised out of thin air, "You have got them training hard Harry. Since the start of this year, they are hard to recognise now."

Harry grimly nodded, "Yes, They're coming along. And in exchange for this, they have paid with their innocence. Most of them are being forced to grow up too fast."

Vikram nodded, "That is war to you, Harry. However I noticed you didn't include yourself among them when you said they are growing too fast."

Harry smiled sadly, "I grew up when I was still a child, Professor."

Vikram decided to dissipate the tension, "So Harry, what did you wanted to talk about?"

"Professor I have tried the demon slaying spell before. I kept the sword going for some time. But yesterday, I was exhausted in 10 minutes. Do you know why?"

Vikram explained patiently, "Showing that spell or just practicing it is demanding enough but when you use it then everything that it does is done by your magic. As much as extravagant the display is, the more exhaustive it would be."

Harry shook his head, "Then what can I do so that I won't collapse in the middle of a battle, Professor?"

"You can consume a vial of pepper-up potion before you go into a battle against the Dementors. And if you have been in battle already and then you are going against them half-exhausted then you should have a vial of rejuvenation draught on you. That will prevent you from collapsing against them. But I must warn you. It is magical exhaustion. Even though you remain conscious, you will reach a point where you will not be able to cast any spell. What's more, you could do permanent harm to yourself. Better to retreat while you can. Keep a portkey handy."

**The Dark Lord's messenger**

Mr. Welter was a half blood who was a lesser name in the ministry. In fact if you asked someone about him, they would tell you that they didn't know any Mr. Welter but he in fact did exist. He was a man of tiny disposition, wispy hair and beady mean looking eyes. He however was far from mean and he worked in the department of magical transportation. He had worked under Madam Edgecombe before she was put under the imperious curse and taken to St. Mungo's. His work mostly had been to supervise the construction of ministry portkeys and to monitor their pathways. When a vacancy suddenly arose in the department, the head of the DMLE, Madam Bones had put him in charge. His ancestors had immigrated to England about 3 generations ago and became a part of the local wizarding populace though he had never asked his father about his origins. They had little in the way of gold or estate so it was clear that they had been poor when they arrived. His father Welter Sr. had worked hard and now they owned a decent cottage in one of the suburbs where the wizards lived in little communities. For him the war which had started blowing in full proportion meant nothing. He was a lowly ministry worker with no talent at curses or hexes so neither side would have wanted him. His house had the most minimal of protections which could be broken down by anyone and nobody had tried to do so yet.

He had a wife whom he had married after he had been just out of Hogwarts and for 2 decades now, they had earnestly tried for a child yet they weren't successful. The healers at St. Mungo's had told him that his wife, Leila can't conceive. They were happy with each other and never complained about this fact to anyone but lived their days in peace. If there was anyone that he loved, it was Leila.

This evening as he left his office and reached his home, he could see that the front door to his house was unlocked. This made him alert because Leila never failed to lock the door when he was not home. For all the good it would do, he pulled out his wand and carefully stepped inside. He failed to notice that the wards did not chime as they usually did when he arrived home. In fact, the wards no longer existed. As he turned on the lights, it was a nightmare before him.

The body of their Keanzle Mr. Puffstein was lying on the floor, quite dead and unmoving. The sofa was upturned, the table was blown to bits, the curtains were splattered with blood and in the middle of the room sat a man he knew from the wanted posters. This man was Augustus Rookwood, one of the Knight's of the dark lord Voldemort, flanked by two death eaters. Leila was on the ground near him, her face cruelly gashed down one side, her long tresses clutched cruelly in one of the guard's fist. His first concern had been for Leila but the wands pointed at him stopped him. He could see her chest moving up and down and was satisfied that she was at least alive.

"Oh Mr. Welter, we have been waiting for you for an hour", said Rookwood while grinning in such a way that his pockmarked face turned more hideous.

"What do you want?", Welter growled, "What have you done to my wife?"

"Oh we haven't done anything to her… yet", he replied, "We were just having tea while we waited for you." He nudged her prone form in the ribs with the toe of his boot.

The moan that escaped his wife's lips drew him to his wife's side, the wand forgotten still in his hand, "What do you want?", Welter snarled, while taking a step towards them.

Rookwood shook his finger, "I wouldn't do that, Mr. Welter. My men will kill her before you can move another inch."

As Welter halted in his place, Rookwood started speaking, "the Dark Lord has honoured you. He has sent me here, Mr. Welter. He wanted to come himself to ask a little service of you but I convinced him that you won't need persuading by him. I hope I have judged you correctly."

As Welter didn't speak, Rookwood continued, "As you know, the Dark Lord has lost some of his men during the recent raids. To break the morale of your ministry, we need to get to the officials of the ministry who have been leading this campaign against us. Our problem is the wards that protect the homes of the more influential families. We can't get past them unless we are ready to fight a bloody battle and bring a battering ram to tear them down. So, to solve our predicament we need another way into those houses, the floo address for instance? This is where your department comes in."

Welter stuttered, "I-I-I W-won't! I-I-I C-can't! Y-y-you can't make me!" His wand began to spark in his hand and his mind was going a mile a minute. The death eaters with the floo addresses of every ministry official! That was a terrible thought. How could he summon help? He was sure they had put a disapparition ward around his place. He couldn't cast the Patronus charm. The death eaters were standing between him and the floo. Even if he managed to send off a distress signal, it would take minutes for help to arrive. What to do what to do? If he had the presence of mind to summon help from the ministry before he entered, it would have been a different story.

Rookwood grimaced, "You refuse the Dark Lord's gracious invitation?" He turned to his companion, "Please enervate the lady, lad and show Mr. Welter what can be the consequences for refusing such a modest request."

The younger man ruthlessly yanked her hair back as she whimpered. The sob from her mouth cut at his heart but he could do nothing. Her captor then cast a severing charm at her other cheek. He slowly and deliberately continued to select other places on her body and repeated until her blood seemed to fill her husband's entire vision.

Welter fell on his knees, crying, "No! Please stop! I'll do whatever you want. Please don't hurt her anymore."

His plan was to say whatever they wanted to make them go away, then to flee to the Ministry and get their help to go into hiding. But these death eaters were not led by a fool, as he was to learn shortly.

Augustus smirked, "I knew you would understand. Now, I want constant updates on the floo addresses for Harold Peverell, Sirius Black, the Bones family, Remus Lupin, the Longbottom family, Alastor Moody and Rufus Scrimgeour to begin with. Not only their floo addresses, but any and all details about their security: wards, surveillance, guards and such."

Welter's eyes widened at the audacity of the death eater, "Surely you must know that any one of those details is classified as Top Secret by the General's orders. I don't have them memorized. I'll have to go back to work, open classified files and look it all up."

He was hopeful that now that he had agreed, they would leave, however Rookwood hadn't finished speaking, "To keep you honest, we are taking your wife with us. If we find that you have betrayed us, she will die."

Welter lunged forward and fell on his knees again, "Please don't take her."

Rookwood laughed evilly and kicked him aside, "Do as we say and you may one day see her again."

Welter realised it would be futile to plead for any clemency and asked, "Would you at least let me hold my wife for once before you take her away?"

Rookwood agreed as if he found the idea amusing, "Of course. Since you can't disapparate away with her, I can allow this small concession."

Welter loved Leila. He would have done anything for her safety but now that he knew the death eaters intended to take her away and he would have to keep doing their bidding as long as they held her hostage, there was only one thing left for him to do. He absolutely would not give up anything that would compromise the General or anyone else who supported him, much less the young Lord Peverell, on the slim hope that he might one day see his dear wife again. Rookwood mistook the profound sadness in the man's eyes for resignation. He revelled in the smaller man's abject misery.

As he tenderly hugged his wife, ensconcing her in his embrace and she clutched to him tightly, hoping for him to protect her, he murmured in her ear, "I am sorry, love. Good bye, till we meet in the after-life."

Leila felt his wand poking her chest, wedged between them. Her eyes momentarily spread in panic and terror before she saw the pain in his eyes. Her face set in determination and she croaked, "Please, do it."

Rookwood realised what was happening a moment too late. He leapt forward, trying to seize Welter's wand arm yelling, "Stop him!"

The two goons jumped in and grabbed at the man. There was blood everywhere. Leila's lifeless body slumped to the floor. Welter hung limply in the grasp of the three men as his wand clattered to the floor. Just before his eyes rolled up, he managed to gasp, "Tom can go to hell."

The damage from the severing hexes was plain on both rapidly cooling bodies. These two were forever beyond the reach of the death eaters.

Cursing their luck, Rookwood ordered his men to leave. A moment later, the dark mark was hovering over Welter's residence trumpeting a death eater attack.

**Hogwarts, Fourth Floor**

Ron, Neville, Hermione and Daphne were in the meeting room, behind the mirror, on the 4th floor. Harry had invited them to hear some essential news.

"There is something I need to talk about. The evening after the Dementor attack I met the General in the Headmaster's office. He told me that there are more dementors out there and that we will need to end them before the final battle."

Daphne asked him, "Why? I mean why now? Why not during the battle?"

Hermione answered her, "I guess it is because of all of us fainting due to exhaustion? I mean I can still feel the exhaustion in my bones. If we were to meet them in final battle, it would mean that we run a risk of getting exhausted and not being able to participate in the war."

Harry nodded, "That is certainly part of it, Hermione. The fact is that we can only make an educated guess as to the extent of Voldemort's forces. Most of them are well hidden. In general, it is in our best interest to eliminate as many of his forces as we can before the final battle. Every soldier or resource that we can deny him improves our chances. In particular, if Voldemort were to let them loose, they would spread sadness, negativity and despair all around while breeding. The muggles would be helpless against them. They can't even see them, never mind having any way to resist them. They wouldn't even know what is happening."

Ron asked, "So what is the plan?"

"There is a large number of them on Azkaban Island. The General has asked us to go and finish them there."

Daphne exclaimed, "What! Go to Azkaban by ourselves?"

Harry shook his head, "No, we will have a number of Aurors with us who can cast the patronus charm. Together we make at least 10 and we will be able to handle them."

Daphne frowned, "How can we even kill them?"

Harry said grimly, "Leave that to me. Only take care that you follow my orders to the last word."

Neville asked him, "When do we leave?"

Harry replied, "We leave by portkey, just before dawn, in two days." Then, looking significantly at the others one by one, he said, "One more thing. Not even a hint of this reaches Susan or by Merlin, you'll answer to me for it. Am I understood?"

As one, they all nodded. Then Harry turned to Neville, "Just to be safe, I don't want you to mention it to Hannah either."

Neville began to open his mouth as if to protest, then stopped and instead he said, "You're right of course, Harry." Then he said to the other three, "Just to be really safe, I don't think that any of us should share this outside of this meeting."

When Harry nodded his assent, the rest readily agreed.

**Unknown Castle**

There had been one thing weighing heavily on Voldemort's mind. The Hogwarts students could fight. That threw a monkey-wrench into his plans. He of course didn't know how capable they were but he was certain that they would know a lot. His plans to take over the castle would be in serious jeopardy if they mounted an attack on Hogwarts only to find a superior force that could mow down all of them. He needed a spy among the students.

He raised his voice and loudly called, "Parkinson!"

Parkinson entered after a moment, "You called my lord?"

"Go and send Montague to me, Parkinson."

William Montague entered about a minute later, "How can I serve you, my lord?"

"Montague, I need a service of you", he drawled, "I hear that you are still on good terms with your family despite being in my service."

Montague, who couldn't believe that Voldemort personally wanted something from him, spoke with awe in his voice, "My lord, my family may outwardly condemn me but secretly, we have always strived to serve you to the best of our ability. Even now while they appear to be aligned against me, they seek ways to promote our cause. You are but to command us."

Voldemort knew what Montague was trying to do. In fact, he had done quite the same during his younger years. "I want you to go to them, William. There is something that you must do."

After Montague had been dismissed, Rookwood walked in, his robes covered in blood, looking disappointed. Voldemort surmised that Rookwood had failed in his task. His impulse would have been to punish Rookwood for this mistake at first but he didn't act on it. The way his followers were being killed on raids lately, Rookwood's safe return was good news.

He asked in what he considered to be his most benevolent tone, "I assume your bring me some bad tidings, Augustus?"

Rookwood hung his head, "Yes, my lord. The ministry worker we hoped to persuade to our side by abducting his wife is dead, by her side, by his own hand. He did that rather than have to betray the ministry to us."

Voldemort didn't believe it. He scanned his faithful servant for signs of deception, thinking that perhaps he had been clumsy and killed the target of his raid without obtaining what he was sent for. Although the man was hiding some guilt, what he found was mostly disbelief. This was new to Voldemort. In the past, this strategy had always worked. He wondered for a moment as to what would have prompted the man to take such a drastic step. However that was to ponder over later. He turned to Rookwood, "so, they are both dead. What did you get out of him before he died?"

Rookwood managed to look even more miserable, "Nothing of value, lord. He prattled on about having to access secret files at the ministry and top secret. When he agreed to do your bidding, we were going to take his wife away to ensure his continued cooperation. That was when he killed both of them with severing curses. My lord, I was too slow to stop him. We left the bodies where they fell. We placed the dark mark over their house before we left."

Voldemort smirked evilly, "That will do, Then Augustus. The appearance of my mark atop a wizarding house with two very messy deaths will send my message well enough. I am pleased with you."

**Ministry of Magic**

Amelia Bones looked up from her work as Moody entered her office. She gestured to a chair as she put her quill into its stand, "What do you have for me, Alastor?"

The old Auror looked grim as he began, "Yes, Ma'am. I got a report about a dark mark over Welter's house. Most of the time, it's already too late to do anything for anyone by the time we see the dark mark, but I took a small team with me just in case. I regret to inform you that Welter and his wife were both found dead. I'll spare you the grizzly details. They're all in my report anyway. The wards were down, destroyed by brute force as far as I know. The Welters were slain by severing curses. Mrs. Welter's body showed clear evidence that she had been tortured. Priori Incantatem showed that Welter cast the deadly curses himself. There was evidence that at least three people, likely all men, were there after the couple died. We found Leila's wand, broken, the pieces lying in a corner, far from her body. Welter's wand was under his body. We had to move him before we could find it."

"What!", she exclaimed loudly, "Welter wouldn't kill his wife. He absolutely adored her."

Moody let her finish her sentence then continued, "I can think of two reasons he could have done that: first, she had been tortured. He may have wanted to stop them from using her to control him. Second, he may have been under the Imperious Curse, the same as his predecessor. The former being much more likely."

Amelia frowned, "We don't know if Welter was compromised, Alastor. He was the acting Head of the Department of magical transportation. I would suppose that they were squeezing him for secrets of that department. Welter being honourable, chose to die rather than betray the ministry."

Alastor nodded, "It would appear that is what happened. Still, we must consider the possibility that the death eaters got what they wanted, then killed the Welters with his own wand. In that case, all of our floo addresses could be compromised."

That sobered Amelia up in a trice, "You're a paranoid son of a goblin, aren't you Alastor?"

Moody nodded proudly, "Yes Ma'am. That's why I'm still alive."

She smacked the parchment on her desk decisively, "I believe that Ramsay is in charge of the department of magical transportation while Madam Edgecombe is away. Please tell him to see me immediately when you pass his office on your way to the lift. I'll have to work out damage control with him before anyone gets hurt."

Amelia took her quill from the stand and began to work on the parchment again, but Alastor hadn't left. When she looked up again, he said, "And what do we tell the press about the Welters?"

Placing the quill back in the stand, she gestured at the parchment before her, "I was working on the press release when you came in. I'm writing about his heroic self-sacrifice. Even if that isn't what happened, it's how I want him to be remembered."

**Hogwarts**

Harry brooded over the grim headline on the front page of The Daily Prophet.

_**"Ministry Employee and wife found murdered at home**_

_Yesterday evening, Aurors were dispatched to investigate a dark mark over the home of a ministry employee. When they arrived, they found the bodies of Mr. Welter of the department of magical transportation and his wife inside._

_Mr. Welter was the acting head of the department while Madam Edgecombe is being treated for the effects of the Imperious Curse at St. Mungo's. Mr. Welter worked for the ministry in the department of magical transportation for 20 years and had a record free of any infractions against him._

_The bodies showed signs of hexes and curses being used on them before they were killed and it is likely that they were tortured for ministry secrets._

_While the ministry has been tightening security around Wizarding Britain, they forgot their own employees. Recently as many as 3 employees, all Department Heads I might add, were found to be imperioused by the death eaters and now we have one dead._

_The pertinent question here is what will the ministry do about it?_

_In response to this incident, the DMLE has issued directions to every wizarding household to change their floo address. It is possible that the department of Magical Teleportation was compromised."_

Harry sighed as he put the newspaper down. Hermione, who was sitting beside him at the Griffindor table, said, "Things are turning for the worse, it seems. First we had the dementor attacks just a couple of days ago and now this. Can't the ministry do something about them?"

It was Neville who answered, "The ministry has issued advisories and training to its employees about procedures to follow if they find something amiss around them. There are steps that have to be taken. For example, Mr. Welter should have had some good protections around his home. I remember meeting him once or twice. He didn't seem to be a man who cared much or knew things. I expect he had the basic protections around his house like everyone else but no serious ones. Even if there were any wards, they wouldn't have held forever. Secondly I think he was not at home when they came calling because otherwise, he would have tried to alert the ministry by floo before they got in. It is very likely that he rushed in instead of thinking things through. The concern for his wife's safety overruled his good judgement."

Hermione turned to Harry, "When do you think this will end, Harry?"

Harry gravely said, "This will not be over until Tom Riddle is dead and the last of his followers with him. We have set a deadline which cannot be rushed. The so-called final battle is still about a month away. Until then, this is a war of attrition. We must do everything we can to prepare, to train, to preserve our people, while at the same time eliminating his people and denying him resources at every opportunity. I expected him to attack muggles, even though they have nothing to do with it, just for the terror value. But if the death eaters are killing ministry employees then it is clear that they want to sow their fear in us."

Hannah asked, "Why are they asking us to change our floo address?"

Ron answered this question, "Welter was the acting head of the department of magical transportation. If the death eaters managed to get anything out of him before he died, changing our floo addresses would protect us by making that information useless. Most of us have wards around our homes, making a frontal assault difficult and time-consuming. Help is almost certain to arrive before they could penetrate them. Hearths, on the other hand, may not be so well defended. A surprise attack through the floo network has a much better chance of success."

Harry said, "Well I don't have to worry about it then. The townhouse is under a Fidelius and the floo is off the network. The Black Manor is also closed so they can't get in there. Other properties don't even have a working floo connection. The only place with a working floo connection is the cottage. I guess Sirius would have changed the address by now. I don't remember putting the Weasley Manor on the network either and Aunt Andromeda never had one installed. Moony had taken his off after the Greyback ambush."

Others nodded in assent that their floo connections would have already been changed by then. If not then they would be after their families read the news.

**The Dark Lord Makes a House Call**

Cyrus Greengrass returned to his manor, quite worried and not looking too happy. When Roxanne entered the parlour where they usually sat in the evenings, she found him with his head on the sofa and eyes closed, perhaps being in deep thought.

"Cyrus what happened?", she asked with a tone of worry in her voice.

He sighed deeply, "Nothing much, dear. I received a letter from death eaters today asking me to pledge my allegiance to them with the neutrals."

"WHAT!", she exclaimed loudly, "That is nothing much? Cyrus, its Voldemort we are talking about."

He tried to calm her down, "I know, love but I don't think he will come here. Even if he did, we have a way to get away before they would be able to break down the wards."

She was still worried, "But Cyrus, how can you be so calm?"

He chuckled lightly, "I am tense as a bow string, love. But there is nothing more that we can do. We have a plan to escape and we can do that at a moment's notice. The little non-descript cottage we have is being kept ready for just such an emergency, stocked with a month's supplies."

She nodded, though still worried, "But promise me that if he comes then you would not act foolishly and try to confront him."

He looked at her warily, "You know we never actively seek a conflict. I would much rather avoid it than face it unless we had no other way."

She smiled, "alright then. Freshen up and I will get you some hot dinner."

Before Cyrus could stand up from the sofa however, he stiffened and barked to her, "Run to the next room to the closet."

She asked him frantically, "What happened?"

"He is here", he said grimly, "They are launching an attack at the wards."

As they ran, he shouted, "Matty."

Matty his house-elf popped before him, "Master called?"

Cyrus said to him quickly, "Go to Dumbledore and inform him that death eaters and may be even Voldemort, are trying to break in. Then come back here and take the vanishing cabinet with you to join us at the cottage."

Cyrus ran to an inside room in his manor where they kept a Vanishing Cabinet. It had cost them a lot of galleons when he bought it but it was an investment which kept them safe in the last war.

As he entered the cabinet, Matty appeared in Dumbledore's office, "Mr. Dumbydorr, Master Greengrass is in trouble. The bad wizards are attacking."

Dumbledore was up from his chair in a moment, throwing a pinch of floo powder in the fireplace, "Office of the Head Auror, Ministry of Magic."

Moody's scarred face appeared in the fire, "Albus, what do you want?"

"Alastor, death eaters are attacking Greengrass manor. And I think that Voldemort is there too. Raise the order members and go to their aide."

As they left, he sent a Patronus to Harry and whistled for Fawkes. The phoenix appeared within a second. Catching hold of its tail, he was gone.

Harry was in the Chamber with Daphne, Ron, Hermione and Neville. Harry was coaching them on the Patronus charm when the phoenix patronus swooped in and spoke in the Headmaster's voice, "Death Eater attack at Greengrass Manor. Fawkes is coming to take you all there."

As they all scrambled to their feet, Fawkes appeared before them. Since there was not a moment to lose, they caught hold of its tail and were gone.

The death eaters were making a concerted effort to smash through the wards with Rookwood and Voldemort in the lead when Voldemort heard the pops of apparition in the distance. He barked orders promptly, "Macnair, take 10 of our men and engage the newcomers."

The Order of the Phoenix had arrived with Moody leading them followed by Kingsley, Sirius, Emmeline, Remus, Tonks, Amelia and Bill. Moody had sent for more Aurors and they were expected to arrive soon. There were about 30 death eaters who had come with Voldemort. At his order, 10 had detached themselves to fight the Order. The Order was outnumbered at the moment when suddenly Fawkes flashed and Dumbledore appeared.

Fawkes was gone immediately as the duels began. Albus was more intent on disabling as many as he could, while other members fought to maim or kill.

Moody blasted one away as soon as he saw them approach, then engaged Macnair himself. Macnair was skilled and deadly but Moody was no slouch. Every curse or hex that Macnair sent at him, Moody answered it with one of his own. His staff had put a shield up for him while he took shots at Macnair from behind it. Macnair was dodging what he could and shielding what he could not. He got a few fair chances to send his choice spells at Alastor but Moody was safe with the shield that he had raised.

Sirius and Emmeline took on 3 of them together. They stood side by side and cast at their enemies.

Emmeline shielded for them while he cast. He had already hit one of them with the same curse that had been Travers' demise. The other two were getting the pounding of their lives, just barely shielding everything. Sirius shared a look with Emmeline and dropping her shield, she started sending curses at them. Face with a double frontal assault, the death eaters were surprised at once when Sirius seized his chance. A well placed Bombarda took the head off of one of them. The last one remaining knew a split second of despair as his shield failed and the follow-up curse destroyed an assortment of his important internal organs.

Remus and Tonks were fighting a group of them and fighting them effectively. They had already killed two and two others were fighting for their lives with them. Bill was mostly intent on protecting Amelia who was fighting death eaters and killing one after another. She had been frustrated with sitting behind a desk while others went out to do the fighting. Now that she had a piece of the action, she was revelling in it. She wasn't staying back. She used the piercing hex with abandon and such was her aim that it always found her foe's heart. They tried to shield but she was faster than them.

Voldemort tried to keep his attention on breaking down the wards, sending more and more of his death eaters to battle the handful of wizards who opposed him, while holding back enough to guard him while he worked. He could plainly see that the wretches were handling his minions with ease. It was time to remind them why he was feared and he'd best do it quickly, before Ministry reinforcements could arrive.

He saw Dumbledore in the crowd and moved towards the old fool. Half of his problems would be solved if he could kill Dumbledore today and may be, he could do that. Dumbledore didn't look as fast and powerful as he had in years past.

Dumbledore spotted Voldemort coming towards him. Having transfigured a dead branch into a voracious beast, he sent it off to engage the death eater he was fighting against and moved forward to engage Voldemort.

It was then that Fawkes flashed in again with a series of pops going on about them. About 20 more Aurors had arrived on the scene with the General himself in the lead. As soon as Frank got his bearings, he roared, "Charge. Let none escape today."

Rookwood, who saw the commotion, knew they could not kill the Greengrasses today. They were at the last layers of the wards but it was already too late. They were suddenly outnumbered over-whelmingly. Remembering Voldemort's orders, he activated his portkey and was gone in a moment.

As soon as Harry arrived, he barked orders to his friends, "All of you, go inside and secure the manor. Daphne will lead you in. See if you can help in anyway. The Aurors are here and we don't need to get in their way."

Hermione asked him, "Where are you going?"

He grinned ferally, "I'm going to have a pleasant chat with my old friend Tom. We have some catching up to do."

They wanted to resist his order but he had drilled into them that they should follow what he said during a battle. There was not a moment to be lost. Skirting the battle and keeping in the shadows, they entered the manor.

Meanwhile Harry ran towards Tom. A death eater saw him and made the mistake of trying to stop him but a piercing hex from Madame Bones sent at him felled him.

The balance of the battle had shifted. The death eaters who remained standing were badly outnumbered. Three Aurors, who were perhaps too bold, had surrounded Voldemort and started casting at him. Voldemort, lashed out in anger with a curse which felled them instantly. Blood rushed into Harry's ears and he roared, "Tom, come and face me."

Voldemort turned to find him and smirked, "Harry Potter, come to die at my hands?"

As Harry ran towards him, Voldemort whipped his wand up and roared, "Crucio!"

Harry jigged ever so slightly without missing a step from the path of the curse while sending a curse of his own in return "Taditam!"

The lightning bolt flashed across the closing distance between them. Voldemort was in no mood to put up a mage shield. Abbadon had hammered it into him that using it too much would drain him quickly making him vulnerable.

To stop the curse from hitting him, he grabbed hold of one of his death eaters and used him as a human shield to take the curse. The bewildered death eater had no time to even realize what was happening before the lightning bolt hit him, killing him instantly.

Harry felt revulsion at the trick. Voldemort was now using his followers as human shields rather than to face him as a respectful wizard would. As the charred body of the death eater crumpled to the ground, Tom sent a wave of fire at Harry. Harry was slow to react and barely dodged as the fire singed the hair on his arms. He could feel the evil in that curse and knew that it was not an ordinary spell but something more sinister.

He hissed loudly and the ground around Voldemort erupted, forming a cage around him. Tom was surprised for a moment but the next moment, he sent a curse which dispersed the cage in an instant. Harry was already on his feet and roared, "Pinak!"

A black arrow erupted out of his wand and rushed at Voldemort who reluctantly raised a mage shield this time. As soon as the spell fizzled out, he dropped the shield and roared, "Fiendfyre!"

The malevolent fire rushed at Harry who had invoked one of his own to counter it. As they fought, the battle around them was winding down. About 10 Aurors were down from one cause or another. Bill had been hit with a bone breaker and a few Aurors were injured but other than that they had suffered no major casualties.

The students emerged from the manor as the battle was winding down. There was no one in the manor. Daphne had contacted her father through her elf who had returned promptly when he heard that his heiress was in the manor while a battle was raging outside it. When they came out, Harry and Tom were still engaged in the battle of wills.

As the snake faced fire and Snow Leopard shaped fire fought, others watched with bated breath. They could feel the tension, the heat and adrenaline rush. Slowly the leopard pushed back the snake faced fire and Voldemort ended the spell abruptly. Harry dispelled his fire as quickly and was already chanting something in an ancient language (It was not Sanskrit). Nothing seemed to happen for a moment but then the sky started to rain fire. It was something that he had once seen in Harsh's memories and had seen Ignotus doing it to a group of his enemies. Voldemort was dancing, trying to stay clear of the fire. The boy surprised him constantly. When they had last duelled, he had not shown so much variety in his casting but this time, he was showing off the extent of his powers.

For Harry's part, he was still using one wand and Voldemort seemed to have improved. For one, he was not making the mistake he made last time. He was being cunning too and was constantly thinking on his feet. He had been able to negate three of his most deadly spells and forced him to do this. As Harry watched Voldemort disapparated to appear at the edge of his vision to his right and banish an arrow at him. Harry flicked his wand and a shield appeared between him and the arrow. Before Voldemort could do anything more, Harry had picked a dagger out of his belt which he threw at Tom. This dagger was an ordinary one but sharp at the edges and it impaled itself in his flesh. Voldemort roared but did not take it out and throw it away carelessly. The dark lord of Austria had taught him this valuable lesson.

Applying a numbing charm to where the dagger had hit him, he started sending his bolts of fire at Harry. Harry would have tried to catch one on his wand point and transform it into his fire whip but with the hostility that it reeked off, he could not risk it. He knew that they could keep fighting for the whole night but the duel would yield no result. Voldemort was conserving his energy and they could keep fighting but to no avail. He decided to try an underhanded trick, something he wouldn't have known to do but Vari had told him. Vari had told him that Petrov, the vampire hunter was not a respectable mystic because he hunted his prey in a pack. The mystics always fought one on one but Petrov always fought to bring his enemy down. He never stopped to enjoy a duel but tended to end it as soon as he could. If they could capture Voldemort today, it would save them a lot of hassle.

He roared to people gathered around him, "Everyone fire your best curses at him. Let's capture him before he gets away."

Voldemort himself knew he was in a tight spot. He could use the parasite spell but it wouldn't change the outcome. He had no back up and the ministry could always summon more and more Aurors while he fought. Besides, it seemed like the brat could go on for hours before he would tire. There was only one course of action left to Voldemort. He would have to run.

It was all-out defence for the Dark Lord now. He shielded and dodged until there was an opening for him. When his one lucky moment came, he had his wits about him and he apparated away to appear behind them. The brat had already guessed his manoeuvre and as Voldemort appeared, a bone breaker struck him on the right shoulder. He hissed as his wand arm went numb. In the next moment, a Barrage of bone breakers struck him.

Suddenly, there was darkness all around, and someone grabbed him whispering, "I will take you out of here, my lord".

This someone apparated away with him as Voldemort passed out.

When the darkness dispelled, the scene revealed the ground littered with death eaters, the Aurors, some battered and bloodied but still standing and Harry, his wand out, glaring at the place where his nemesis had stood only a moment ago. The General was the first to find his voice, "Where did he go? Where did that darkness come from? I thought we had him."

It was Albus who answered, "I believe it was one of his men who risked his life to save their master. Someone who knew of the darkness and took advantage of the distraction it caused. I daresay that with all the damage we were able to do to him, Tom won't venture out again anytime soon."

It was then Frank turned to Harry, "that was one amazing battle, Harry!"

However, revelling in his win was the last thing on Harry's mind. "Did you see that?" he said as he pointed to the charred body of a death eater, lying on the ground. "He used that man as a human shield, rather than go to the bother of raising a mage shield! That is how much regard he has for human life. Even his own loyal followers. He's lower than scum!" Then he looked around the battle to the Aurors who had fallen in battle, "To many! Too many! This has to stop."

Frank nodded, "I know. It's a dark gloomy night for all of us. You return to the castle with your friends, Harry. I will see you all later."

Dumbledore took them away to appear outside the hospital wing. When Harry saw where they were, he sighed wearily, "Headmaster, I am not hurt. I don't need to be there."

Dumbledore chuckled, "I know you are not hurt, my boy. But a good night's rest without the distraction of your house mates will do you some good."

Harry nodded, "Are we still going to Azkaban tomorrow?"

Dumbledore said uncertainly, "The final decision is with the General. If you are not feeling up to the task tomorrow by reason of fatigue, we can always reschedule."

Harry shook his head vehemently, "No Headmaster. That coward hardly warmed me up tonight. I'll be fine. As far as I'm concerned, we will proceed."

While his friends left for their houses, he walked into the Hospital wing to find Susan on her bed in the infirmary. When she had been brought in, she had insisted on being assigned to the bed next to the one named for him. Harry climbed into his bed and passed out instantly.

* * *

**A/N- a big rant coming. I have seen a lot of fanfics where the writer bashes up every good character or makes some very weird storyline which makes no sense or they would just throw in every random thing that they can think of yet people flock to their fanfics. I have seen how people revel in Jilly bashing or how they put Snape and Lilly together. I have even seen some where Harry or Hermione are meant as the prize for the slytherins for their redemption arcs which cannot happen unless you are modelling them in your own light. These fics aren't even as detailed and as rich I try to make mine yet I keep waiting for follows or favourites or reviews. **

**Now that the rant is done, a quick question. How many of you people want me to take this fanfic to the end? I mean with the little interest it is generation, it is a genuine questions which arises in one's mind.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Unknown Castle**

When Voldemort returned to consciousness, he found himself in the master chamber of the Castle. His followers the Carrows, Malfoy, the Lestranges and Severus were all there looking concerned.

He had gone out on the ambush to sow his fear in the hearts of enemies but not without taking some precautions. He was not being as impudent or brash as earlier but worked with some back-up plan in case things went pear shaped. Before he left, he had assembled a team of his fiercest death eaters and some of the most capable Germans under the leadership of Wagner. He had left them specific instructions that they were to come to his aid if Rookwood returned alone. They were told that their most important work would be to retrieve Voldemort if he was caught in a difficult situation. When Rookwood returned to the castle, it took them 5 minutes to get the story out of him. When they knew everything that was happening and that they would be outnumbered if they tried something foolish, Wagner had decided strategy. He would focus on rescuing Voldemort while others would cast the black fog for 5 minutes. After that, they were to apparate away. Wagner went in, saw that they were about to capture Voldemort. He had his men cast the fog, apparated near Voldemort, caught hold of him and was gone. Apparently the injuries that he suffered weren't life threatening or as numerous as they first appeared. It looked like the fools were trying to capture him alive.

He sat up, wincing very little at the pain which he knew was from the mended bones and asked Severus, "What are you doing here, Severus?"

Severus drawled in his Snapesque voice, "The Old fool told me how the ministry had cowardly ambushed you at the Greengrass manor, my lord. Greengrass had some ways to contact the ministry even if his floo was down. He was able to summon help."

"What was the boy doing there, Severus?", Voldemort asked.

Severus did not yet know that Harry had been involved in the adventure. He was caught off-guard but had a convincing lie ready, "From what I know my lord, the old fool had the boy in his office talking about the students. He has been concerned about how the students are being taught to kill, that it is entirely unnecessary to teach them to kill anyone. In fact, he has expressly told the new defense teacher to teach only defensive magic to the students."

This new piece of information made Voldemort pause and think about this new defense teacher. He hadn't thought about it yet but what if the new defense professor had been readying the students. He turned to his knights, "What do you know about this teacher? Let us start with his name."

"My lord, he is called Vikram Rana. A source has it that he has come from USA on a teaching assignment. I was not able to discover anything about his family", answered Rookwood.

"What do we know about his teaching abilities?", he asked and no one answered.

He turned to Severus who said, "His focus is on the practical aspects of teaching rather than theory. He teaches them to dodge, to duel and how to conserve their strength through a duel or a fight."

Voldemort thought over it for a long time before he spoke again, "So is he teaching all those things to everyone?"

Severus nodded, "yes my lord. I haven't seen him discriminating against anyone."

A plan was beginning to form in his mind but it would take some time to form fully. However if this plan of his succeeded, he was sure that he could cause some trouble inside Hogwarts.

After he had dismissed everyone, he asked for Severus to stay back. When they were alone, he asked, "Severus, how many students are involved? I know it was them who resisted our forces until the others could arrive."

Once again, Severus lied to the dark lord, "My Lord, I have seen a score of them practicing curses and hexes by themselves at times. The new defense teacher knows a lot about defensive and offensive magic and he is an able duellist. From what I have found out, he has won a few duelling titles in the past."

Voldemort nodded, "Your job is to discover how many students are training with them. What they are learning to do? What is the extent of his knowledge and how much he is willing to teach them?"

When Snape nodded, he continued, "Another thing that I want to know, Severus. How close is the brat to Dumbledore these days? I heard that the old fool took another boy as his apprentice but apart from the battle of Hogsmeade, I haven't heard of his apprentice being in a battle anywhere."

Snape's own information on Neville Longbottom was sparse, however he could tell him about Harry. "My lord, the old fool keeps the boy as close to him as he can. He has been teaching him arcane rituals, some of which are of dubious origin. They intend to fight this war presenting a united front against you and your forces. His apprentice as far as I know is still a wizard if mediocre talents who would pose much threat to your followers."

Voldemort sneered, "Twice they have caught me in an ambush but no more. Now they will know the terror of my name. Did you discover anything about that spy?"

Severus thanked himself for having learned Occlumancy that he could shield his thoughts from Voldemort. The search for the said spy was past due and yet Voldemort hadn't come close to discovering his identity. If things remained the way they were, he never would find out anything about it.

He turned to Voldemort, "My lord, I am close to discovering the identity of this spy. From what I can guess, he has made some kind of sinister deal with Dumbledore for passing information and secrets to him in return for amnesty from the ministry. The spy has found a way around the dark mark so that they can continue to defy you yet would not be harmed by it."

Voldemort was getting anxious, "Do you know his name?"

Severus shook his head, "From what I heard, it is someone whose family is on the side of light while the pretend to serve you. Their family pulled enough strings to get Dumbledore to agree to this deal."

Voldemort curtly said, "Keep an eye on it, Severus. When you find this spy, I will reward you beyond your wildest dreams. Now return to the castle and pay attention to the old fool and everything that he is doing. Keep an eye on everything and report to me if you see something suspicious happening."

Severus bowed low to him before he started to walk out. Voldemort called, "Send Emmett Wagner in on your way out."

While he awaited Wagner, he thought about how things were. Abbadon had told him to check the state and security of his horcruxes first. He had been caught up in other things and had forgotten the important instructions from his master. If the Horcruxes were gone, it will all be for naught.

Wagner entered the bedroom, bowed before him and remained standing. Voldemort pointed him to one of the chairs, "Take a seat Wagner. I have decided to honour you with a seat in my inner circle. You have performed a great service for Lord Voldemort yesterday snatching me from the clutches of the ministry."

Internally Wagner rolled his eyes. Trust a dark lord to be so dramatic. He was a mercenary and instead of words or meaningless honours, gold suited him better. He managed to keep the disdain from his face as he lied politely, "there will be no higher pleasure than this for me, Dark Lord."

Voldemort's estimation of the man went up a degree or two. This was not some brainless, simpering sycophant. Voldemort waited for him to sit and then continued, "I can sense some disappointment, Wagner. Perhaps gold would be better recompense to you than a place in my inner circle? Worry not, I will ensure that you are sufficiently rewarded. Now what do you think we should do?"

Wagner took in the fact that Voldemort was actually asking him for advice, "My lord, from what I have heard from my sources all over Europe, clandestine preparations are being made by individuals and organisations to come to Wizarding Britain's aid when the time comes. For now we have superiority in numbers. But if they get some outside help, the odds will even out. What you need to do is to ask your allies in other countries to brew trouble. Ask them to raise their banners and let hell loose all over Europe. This way, they will be too caught up in their own problems to come to the aid of the ministry here."

Voldemort mused over the advice for a few minutes then continued, "I suppose your suggestion makes sense. However the problem is that I have very little in the way of allies."

Wagner answered, "Ask them in the name of Lord Abbadon. Most of them are bound to him in one way or another. To honour any orders/ requests made in his name is their duty. Since you are the heir of Lord Abbadon in magic, they can't deny you, they are as bound to you as they are to Lord Abbadon. They only have to create enough trouble so that the foreign wizards will be reluctant to leave their homes and families unguarded."

Voldemort nodded, "I will get to it. However, there was another thing which concerns me. What should I do about the boy, Wagner?"

Wagner knew this question was coming. It had to be since the boy had humiliated Voldemort a few times already. He had also thought about a solution, "My lord, one of the reasons that he is able to defeat you is that he is very confident of his abilities. Also the terror of your name is significantly less than it should be. If the wizarding world were to fear your name, it would have some effect on him even if it was just a little. He is surrounded by people that he loves and who would die for him. However we know that he wouldn't want any of them to die for him. If any of them were to die, it would be a blow to his morale. Lastly, when you meet him next in battle, don't seek him out at once. Throw your forces at him, make him exhaust himself Only then should you move in to fight him when he is vulnerable."

Voldemort smirked, "I can work with that strategy. Is there any other suggestion you would like to make?"

Pleased with himself, Wagner had a small smile on his face, "let your death eaters and dementors loose on Britain. Don't ask them to make elaborate plans or attack in large groups. Instead, instruct them to go two or three at a time, strike randomly, kill whomever they find whether muggle, squib or wizard, and retreat immediately, leaving the dark mark in the sky. They should never spend more than a few seconds on any strike. They should never engage in duels. With dead bodies and the dark mark everywhere, the sheer randomness and number of attacks will have all of Britain fearing your name, as they should. That will break their morale and cause them to lose faith in their so-called 'Chosen One' People can't fight when they are running for their lives.". Seing that Voldemort was pleased with his suggestion, Wagner ventured to ask, "Do you have a place in mind for the final battle?"

Voldemort nodded, "Indeed, I do but that is for later. Leave me now, Wagner. I have some plans to make."

**Hogwarts**

Harry was in the hospital wing, at Susan's side when the morning paper arrived. Of course, the front-page story was about the battle last night:

_**"Voldemort clashes with the chosen one**_

_In an unanticipated turn of events last night, the terrorist otherwise known as Lord Voldemort or Tom Marvolo Riddle as people have begun to call him, was at Greengrass manor last evening. He, along with an estimated 30 of his followers was caught in the act of attempting to force their way through the wards to attack the Greengrass family. This reporter believes that his intent was to either force the Greengrass family to take his side in the current blood war with Lord Peverell or murder them if they refused. Here this reporter would like to remind the readers that Lord Greengrass was a leader of the neutral faction in the Wizengamot before he sided with the light at the time of the investment of Lord Peverell._

_The ministry received a distress call from Lord Greengrass and responded with a strike force of 30 Aurors within minutes. Members of The Order of the Phoenix, led by Albus Dumbledore were already on the scene when ministry forces arrived. It is believed that the chosen one accompanied the Headmaster of Hogwarts to the battle. Lord Peverell directly engaged Voldemort in a duel._

_Most of the witnesses refused to speak openly about the duel which took place. One of the eye-witnesses, on condition of anonymity, had the following to say about it:_

_'They charged each other like two giants. The Chosen one went on the offensive from the start. He started by firing curses upon curses at Voldemort who deftly evaded everything that was sent at him. Unlike the previous battle between them, this time he was not making any mistakes but kept fighting on an equal footing with the chosen one. In his desperation, the chosen one even used a lot of questionable spells. Spells which are only heard of in classified secrets of the Ministry but there were only a couple of times that Voldemort looked like he was really in trouble. Once, he used one of his own men for a human shield. The other time, he raised a mage shield. We almost had him right at the end there, but there was this darkness, then he was gone. For those who are new to the Auror forces, it was a master lesson in dueling.'_

_With that being said, it was perhaps the first occurrence where the Order of the Snow Leopard did not make an appearance. That raises some pertinent questions and tends to stoke some of the old suspicions. The ministry did not confirm or deny those suspicions. This ambush also involved heavy losses for the ministry. We mourn the passing of ten Aurors in the field, including Williamson who fell at the hands of Voldemort himself. There were as many as 25 death eaters who died in the ambush including Walden Macnair, former executioner of the Ministry of Magic, who we are told, was killed by Alastor Moody._

_This is the second attack in a week by Voldemort's forces. It is bound to send some ripples of apprehension through the entire community. They could be asking themselves if the ministry is doing enough."_

There was a photo of Harry and Voldemort dueling that took up a full third of the front page. It showed Harry sending a curse to meet Voldemort's curse midway. It made an impressive scene, but Harry was nursing the side of his head with frustration.

"What happened, my handsome boyfriend", Susan asked from the bed next to him.

It was still early in the morning but Madam Pomfrey had already sent the other students away. Harry had decided to stay because he wanted to be near Susan when the paper came. Oddly enough she was calm when she saw the headline.

Harry showed her the paper and she whistled, "You look so yummy here."

Harry glared at her, "Sue, they have found another Skeeter. This one does not mince his/her words. See how they are impugning the ministry and inferring that we are doing nothing. Accidentally, they are also giving a lot to the death eaters to think about."

She nodded, "I can see that but you just can't go to Cuffe's office and tell him to behave."

Harry patted his arm where his wand holster was, "Sure I could. Or, perhaps Aunt andromeda could pay him a visit." But then he shook his head, "but I don't like the kind of message that would send. Still, there must be something we can do?"

She nodded, "later. We will deal with him later. When we have vanquished Voldemort then we will deal with this."

He nodded, then asked her, "When is Madam Pomfrey going to release you from her clutches?"

She groaned, "She told me that she wants to keep me here for another 3 days, just in case."

He nodded, "I will leave you in her care then. I am going to classes. I'll come to see you sometime before curfew. I have to run some errands."

She kissed him deeply on the lips. As he was leaving, she said over his shoulder, "Don't end this war without me, Harry."

He chuckled then said, "No worries, Sue. I'll let you watch when I behead Voldemort."

**Ministry of Magic**

As it happened, he didn't get to see Sue until it was very late in the evening. Just after classes, he was summoned to the ministry with his friends. However before they went to the Headmaster's office, Harry told them to get ready. He made all of them wear the Basilisk armour over their robes even if they didn't expect to face any spell casters. He himself wore the duelling robes which he had worn in the battle of Burma, the armour that he had got from his vault, the leather mask and took his sword with him just in case.

Neville was likewise dressed in duelling robes and the armour with the longsword over his back. Ron and Hermione had chosen not to carry their swords because they still didn't feel that they were proficient enough with them.

In the headmaster's office, Dumbledore showed them the Vanishing Cabinet. They entered the Vanishing Cabinet one at a time to find themselves exiting an identical cabinet on the Auror floor at the ministry. Moody greeted them there, grinning hideously.

After the last one came through, Alastor escorted them to the training room where the Minister, General Frank Longbottom, with a number of his top Aurors greeted them.

Once they fell in, Frank addressed them as he paced up and down the line, "Your mission is to deal with dementors. Although many of you are more experienced, your commander for this mission is Lord Peverell and you will follow his orders without question. These foul creatures cannot be killed or destroyed by any mundane means or most magical means either and the unique ability to destroy them is the reason Lord Peverell is in command. You will travel to Azkaban Island to accomplish this mission. We have intelligence that about 100 dementors are there while A number of dementors have left the island and their whereabouts are unknown at present. We have dispatched people to locate them. I remind you that this mission is dangerous. May Mother Magic protect you. That is all."

As one, the assembled Aurors Snapped to attention. When the General returned their salute, Alastor led them to the staging area.

Harry started to follow them, but Frank held him back. He addressed Harry with mock sternness, "You should know how greatly I am displeased that you didn't ask for me to be included among your companions, Harry."

Harry grinned, "If you weren't our General, I would have asked you before anyone else."

Frank grumbled to himself, "I knew there was a reason I should have turned down this job."

**Eat dust, you fiend.**

The troops assembled themselves around the portkeys. With the tug behind the naval and a couple of minutes later, they were deposited on the banks of the North Sea. The wizarding prison was five miles out to sea where it was situated on a desolate piece of rock that jutted above the waves at high tide. Nothing grew there and it did not offer anything in the way of a harbour, pier or dock. As far as muggles could tell, it didn't even exist.

Two boats had been arranged for them to row out to the Island. Hermione, Daphne and Ron were joined in their boat by Moody, Kingsley and Robards. Harry and Neville were joined by Sirius, Remus and Nymphadora in the second boat. With four on the oars and one steering in each craft, the little boats travelled quickly over the swells toward the Island. Harry noticed that Sirius was shaking.

Out of concern, he caught hold of his hand, "Are you OK, Sirius? What happened?"

It was Remus who answered, "Azkaban was not a pleasant experience for him. When we were here the last time, he was shaking like a leaf then too."

Harry caught hold of his hand, projecting some of his magic to Sirius's white hands, "Father, I really need you to look sharp for what lies ahead. For all we know, you may be the advantage that we need."

Sirius asked him, "What do you need?"

"You know this Merlin forsaken chunk of rock better than any of us. We're counting on you to find us a way in. Can you think of a place that is open enough for us to fight the dementors and they won't be able to sneak up on us?"

Sirius nodded, "On the other side of the Island is the graveyard. That's where they bury those who perished while they were in prison. It's just a big, flat slab of level rock. They couldn't even bury anyone without magic there. There's no place to hide there. I think it'll do."

Harry nodded, "And how do we get there unnoticed?"

Sirius turned to Nymphadora who was steering, "Signal them to follow us. I will lead us to a sort of underground passage that connects us to stairs which lead up to the graveyard."

With a series of signals exchanged, Robards started following Harry's boat. They were led to the West side of the prison where the waters were shallow and there was an outcropping of rocks which could serve as a disembarking point for their boats. As they approached, Harry could feel that the anti-apparition wards which used to exist were no longer there but a more sinister ward was in its place now. This felt extremely hostile and Harry cautiously said, "Before we go, let me analyse these wards."

He shot several detection spells in random directions. When he was done, he turned to them, "It is not a single ward but a cluster of wards up there. These wards were designed to stop some very specific spells. They will also stop any portkey or apparition by someone who does not bear the dark mark. We cannot access these wards until we can find the access code to these wards. And please don't call him by his given name or it will turn nasty for us. Call him by his birth name or something funny and we will be okay. Really ingenious that Tom thought about it."

Moody asked him, "Can you find the access codes or it was all for naught, lad?"

Harry grinned, "These wards seem to start at the front where the main gates used to be and we are at their boundary. These wards were written in parsel tongue. The thing about parsel tongue is that you have to use simple words for all the functions you intend it to perform."

Hermione asked him, "What does that mean?"

"That means that if I am to open something, I would simply say 'open'", he replied. "These wards need simple words like that."

With that he focused on the wards again and within minutes, he was dismantling them. After about 5 minutes, he said, "I haven't taken them down entirely. That would require me to find the ward stone. Also, I don't want to alert old Tom in case I took it down and tripped some hidden alarm. However I command these wards now so I can ask it to give access to wherever we want to go." He grinned, "And, if anyone with the dark mark attempts to Disapparate or portkey out of here now, they're in for a rude surprise. Now Padfoot, lead the way and I will keep clearing the way for us."

Sirius transformed into his dog form while Harry barked orders, "Master Auror, it is your duty to ensure that everyone is alert at all times. If you see something moving in the shadows then don't hesitate to take it down. Sense any danger, alert others instantly. There should be no one here but us and the dementors. Anyone else is a death eater."

Padfoot took up the lead with Moody and Harry behind him. Remus and Tonks were on Harry's six. Next were Ron and Hermione, then Neville and Daphne. Rear guards were Kingsley and Robards.

The walls of the prison at this side were smooth devoid of handholds or footholds to climb. Everyone wondered for a minute how Padfoot would lead them inside. He led them to a side where there was a submerged tunnel. Padfoot climbed into the tunnel which was half filled with water and sludge. Wrinkling their noses, the students trudged through it. The Aurors seemed unphased, however. Moody had put them through worse than this during training. The water in the tunnel was only up to their chest at the most and it kept receding as they walked forward. Soon it became apparent to them that they were climbing toward some outlet that carried water and sludge out from the complex.

After 5 minutes of walking, they reached the top of the slope. They halted for a minute there while Padfoot sniffed his way about. Then he took them through a grill in the wall whose bars were broken or removed some time ago. It was uncomfortable for most of them to pass through but they managed. They could have tried to blast it away but the noise from a Bombarda could have alerted the dementors.

Moody who was watching the passage was noticing every detail that no one else did. He was beginning to understand how Sirius had escaped. He had found his way down to the ground level instead of jumping down from the top of the complex as it was believed earlier. Having the dog form helped him get through the tight spots. He must have been very thin back then to have fit through the vent because he had trouble getting through it this time.

When they were through the vent, they found themselves in an old musty smelling room that had seen better days. Their lit wands revealed that it had once been used to hold prisoners. The manacles on the walls were a good clue. The sight of cracked, black stains on the manacles, walls and floor spoke of horrors of the past. Some of them shivered despite themselves.

Harry ordered everyone to clean and dry themselves before they continued.

The cell door led to a maze of passageways and other cells. Situated at some distance was what Moody identified as the offices of the prison guards. When they passed through the deserted office space, they found the door to the stairs leading upwards. The dungeons weren't too deep underground or they would have been under water at high tide. They only had to climb up one level to find themselves breathing clean sea air again.

On exiting the dungeon, Sirius returned to his human form, wand at the ready. He pointed to a forsaken, barren stretch of rock, not far away, and said, "The graveyard is over there."

Harry handed out potions as he addressed the group, "We'll be battling at least a hundred dementors soon. I can already feel the temperature dropping. Drink up. These are rejuvenation draughts, laced with chocolate. They'll keep you on your feet and help you resist the effects of the dementors. Look sharp, Keep your patronus charms ready. The spell I'm going to use takes all the concentration I can muster. Your job is to keep those slimy fiends from rushing me in a body. Only let one or two through at a time. If any one of you passes out, if any one of you even wavers, we activate our portkeys and get out of here immediately. There'll be no dead heroes under my command. Is that clear?"

Moody spoke up, "There's some nasty anti-portkey and anti-disapparation wards around here, Lad. We shouldn't try…"

Harry interrupted the veteran Auror, grinning, "That won't be a problem for us, Moody. I took care of that on the way in." To the rest of the group, he said, "Now, everyone form up around me and let's go!"

His friends formed a circle around him as they ran out to the middle of the graveyard. The dementors seemed to emerge from the dark on every side, their scabrous hands clutching at them, their breath sucking all the joy, hope and warmth out of the air. Suddenly, their raiding party of mighty warriors seemed weak and insignificant in the face of the onslaught of the soul-sucking fiends.

Then everything happened at once. Harry raised his wand to the sky and invoked the slayer of demons. The sky flashed blindingly bright in a blaze of sheet lightning that settled in a single jagged bolt and came to rest on his wand. The dementors, irresistibly drawn to the spell, tried to rush Harry in a body. Ten powerful, full-body patronus charms erupted from the wands of his companions, barring the way for the fiends. And three of the dementors met their fate with the first swing of the captured lightning bolt.

Cheers went up from nine throats, but Sirius was in trouble. His patronus faded out every time he tried it. It was Remus who spoke encouragement to him, "Just think, Sirius. This is your chance to get even with these fiends!"

The words kind of infused new vigour into him. Sirius shook himself like a dog after a swim and then his patronus erupted from his wand again, brighter than before. It loped over to a dementor and chomped down on it its leg, pinning it in place and it seemed that the patronus burned the fiend. It just wanted to flee, but the dog patronus was having none of it.

Quickly, the battle took a form. The patronus of each member of the group carefully herded one or two dementors at a time into the killing zone. Harry dispatched all of them with such speed that his spell seemed to blur. His wand vibrated violently and yet Harry seemed to pay it no mind. He wielded it with deadly precision until no more dementors answered the siren call of the lightning blade. Taking one more look around, he let the spell dissipate. As he worked on catching his breath, he muttered, "Fifty. There were only fifty of them here. Merlin only knows where the rest have gone."

Louder, he said, "That's all of them. You won't be needing your patronus charms anymore."

Almost as one, the patroni vanished.

Harry was wet with perspiration. He gasped, "Death eaters will be on their way for sure. We need to find cover somewhere between here and the front gate." That was when the wards chimed in Harry's head. Gathering himself up, he said, "Look sharp, everyone! They're already here."

As they ran toward the rubble pile that had been the main tower of the prison, Harry spoke, "Ron, pick a good spot for an ambush and assign everyone to a place."

Even in this dim light, Ron could see that there were great slabs of broken stone, any one of which would provide excellent hard cover. The shadows cast would easily hide full-grown adults. Disillusionment spells would be as good as Harry's invisibility cloak under these conditions. He barked out, "Disillusionment spells, everyone." He rapidly pointed out hiding places to each member of the team. By the time they got to the rubble pile, everyone knew what to do.

Even when Azkaban had been a working prison, the corridors were only wide enough for three people abreast. The ruins barely allowed one at a time to wiggle their way through. Although the death eaters nearly had them outnumbered three to one, they had to deal with the terrain.

By the time the first of the death eaters made their way into the waiting ambush, the last of them were just starting to make their way into the ruins. They all had their wands out, trying to find their way through the maze of tumbled stone. Harry had to restrain himself from laughing. They were making it too easy. He used his cat vision to make sure that none of them were skulking around in the dark, but found no more.

When Ron squealed like a sea-gull, ten wands spoke at once. In the same instant, Moody, who had been eager to try out the new gadgets, produced three metal spheres from the depths of his robes. With a gesture, he banished them to the rear of the death eater party, where three metallic clinking sounds followed by a poof announced the demise of ten of the death eaters the moment they took their next breath.

The ambush was a wild success also. Of the ten death eaters who had helpfully lit themselves up like Christmas trees with their wand light, only three thought fast enough to shield themselves from the first barrage. The other seven lay dead because their skulls no longer served their intended purpose. Harry, Kingsley and Robards quickly dispatched the remaining three with artful spell chains. They never had a chance to dodge or fight back because they had messed up their dark adaption with their lit wands. With only ten death eaters remaining, they doused their wands and dove for cover. Harry knew they were all tired from keeping their patronus charms going for about five minutes and that the death eaters coming in were fresh and ready to fight. They hadn't won the day yet and it was doubtful that any of the rest of them had a spell left in them. Harry knew that even though he still had a few spells left in him, he was done if he got into an extended duel. The sound of a sword being drawn could be heard by everyone. It was quickly followed by the sound of another sword being drawn. The next moment, the gleam of the two goblin wrought silver swords could be seen by the opening to the ruined corridor. Moody whispered from nearby, "What are you lads about?"

Harry's voice whispered from behind one of the blades, "I know the rest of you are about all in. We're going to try some muggle fighting."

There was just the whisper of moving armour as Moody took up a position behind them with his staff at the ready. The draught had done its work and he was not about to pass out instantly.

Robards voice whispered out next, "What do you want us to do?"

Harry whispered back to him, "Keep your positions. If any of them manage to sneak by us, make sure they don't live to tell about it. If we're not back in ten minutes, your orders are to use your portkeys and get to safety."

Without another word, Robards was back in his position.

Harry led the way. They found the first death eater trying to peer out of the corridor from behind a large stone. With a swish and a thud, his head parted company from his neck. Neville gasped. That was when Harry realized that he could see much better in the dark. Neville probably only got a hint of what had just happened. He whispered in his god-brother's ear, "Use the night vision from your bear form."

The next moment, Neville whispered back, "Good to go."

They found the next one, lost in the darkness, trying to fumble his way back to the boats. With a powerful overhand swing, Neville cleaved the man from shoulder to hip. They moved on as the ruined body slumped to the floor.

Moody spotted the next one with his magical eye, trying to ambush them from a side passage. Without even turning, he fired a bone exploder from his staff at the man's neck. The result wasn't pretty.

After making sure that there was no one in immediate vicinity, Harry cast a non-verbal Homenum revelio. He could clearly make out the locations of his allies, and six more, making their way through the rubble ahead. He directed his steps toward the nearest one. Neville followed with Moody guarding their rear.

The next death eater tried to shield himself when he heard them coming, but a magical shield was no match for a goblin wrought sword. He was sent to the afterlife to join his friends when his heart lost its structural integrity due to a piece of silver sticking through its outer wall.

The last five had gotten smart. They had taken up positions in what had been a large room. They were dug in like ticks and ready for a fight. There was also a bit of moonlight streaming down where the roof had been. Moody's bright-blue eye spotted the danger before the party exited the corridor. He whispered, "Stop."

Harry pulled Neville into a huddle with the Master Auror, "What is the matter, Master Auror?"

The blue eye, focused on the tableau up ahead, he answered, "There's five of 'em in there. They think they're going to spring a little surprise on us."

Harry nodded, "Ok, so how do we turn the tables on them?"

Moody asked, "Do you think you can manage another spell or two?"

Harry shook his head, "Sorry. I'm knackered. No can do."

Neville volunteered, "I was feeling it a few minutes ago, but I'm sure I could duel Professor Rana now if I had to."

Moody clapped Neville on the shoulder and said, "That's the spirit, Lad. Now, here's the plan…"

A few seconds later, a ten-foot-tall stone golem lumbered out into the moonlight. As the death eaters scrambled to try and destroy the thing with Bombarda Maxima, it smashed one of them into a bloody pulp with a swipe of its arm. While the death eaters were trying to destroy the monolithic menace, Harry used the shadows and the confusion to sneak around while disillusioned to get atop a large stone behind the death eaters. As the smashed remains of the animated juggernaut crumbled to the ground, one death eater lost his head, while another one had his neck explode and a third one lost his wand arm shortly followed by his head. The last remaining survivor was hit from behind with a simple stunner. Moody had him trussed up like a Thanks-giving turkey and levitating before the dust settled.

Harry nodded grimly, "50 dementors and 30 death eaters in one night. That's good work. But we'd better get out of here before reinforcements arrive."

With his enhanced vision, Harry led them out of the maze at a near run. As they approached the end of the corridor where their friends were waiting to ambush anything that got past them, Harry called out, "Mission accomplished!"

Robards approached them as they came out into the moonlight, "I see that the Master Auror has collected another pet?"

Alastor barked with what passed for a chuckle with him then said, "The Lad says we need to get out of here. I'm inclined to agree with him."

Robards called out, "Alright folks, our commander says it's time to go home. Fall in!"

The party dropped their disillusionment charms and formed up. The next moment, they were all ready to take hold of the portkeys. That was when a sea-gull swooped in and turned into a wizard before their eyes.

Bartley Higgins spoke urgently, "Alastor, it's time to leave. Many more death eaters are coming this way. You will get trapped." He pointed towards a direction, "through the outcropping of rocks, there is a way which will lead you to the water where I have brought your boats. Get on them."

Moody firmly clapped the man on the shoulder, "that won't be necessary, Bartley. We'll be leaving by portkey. Did you happen to notice how many death eaters were taken out by the poisonous gas on your way in?"

Bartley paused for a moment before his eyes widened and he asked, "You mean the ones that looked untouched? I thought they were just stunned."

Moody nodded, then Bartley answered, "I counted 11 of them."

Moody grinned in grim satisfaction, "Alright. You can catch a portkey back with us or you can observe what they do when they see what we've done and report to me at the ministry when you're done."

Bartley slapped the bandolier full of silver daggers he was wearing and responded, "If it's all the same to you, Sir, I'll hang around just a bit longer." With that, he turned back into a sea-gull and took to the air.

With a gesture from Moody, the party took hold of their portkeys and vanished.

**Ministry of Magic**

Although morale was high, they had just handed 29 death eaters a one-way ticket to the afterlife on top of accomplishing their mission, the troops were exhausted and cold. The dementors and the night air on a barren slab of rock in the North Sea hadn't done them any good. The party landed in a heap as their portkeys dropped them in the staging area.

Most of them, including Harry were not in a hurry to get up. Alastor was still standing, but anyone looking closely would notice that his prosthetic leg was not moving and he was leaning on his staff heavily.

They were all given rejuvenation draughts and when they came around, Frank asked Alastor, "What happened there? That took a long time."

Alastor explained, "Well sir, we had to row across five miles of open ocean, defeat the wards and crawl in through a sewer before we could even begin the battle. Then when we were done with disposing of the soul sucking fiends, 30 death eaters tried to get the jump on us. Whose idea was it to send Bartley after us anyway?"

"I did. I was worried and wanted to know what was happening. Higgins reminded me that he has the perfect disguise to fool the death eaters and Dementors alike and find out what is happening. I was happy to allow him to go. Where is he?"

"He will return after some time", Moody replied "he is on an errand for now."

The General then turned to the students, "You all performed commendably. Your services will be remembered and you will be adequately rewarded when the time comes. Now, if you all can manage then the Vanishing Cabinet is over there. I daresay that Albus would be worried for you all."

Without a word, they all stood in a line and followed Harry to the cabinet. This time, they exited in the Hospital wing at Hogwarts, where Madam Pomfrey stood waiting for them, her hands on her hips, fire in her eyes and her wand in her hand sending up sparks.

Without a word, she let everyone to a bed and for good measure tied them to it after allowing them to take off their armour and change into their pajamas

When Harry tried to take the bed adjacent to Susan, she curtly said, "I don't think so, idiot boy."

She led him to the farthest bed from Susan and after tying him up on it, shoved a vial of dreamless sleep down his throat.

Dumbledore kept watch over the spectacle with amusement and he was also scared of Poppy. She had chewed his head off for sending students on such a dangerous errand at such a dangerous place. It was only when Dumbledore assured her that she could keep them as long as she wished that she had relented.

It was a small mercy that there were no other students in the hospital wing. It wouldn't do for them to see students emerging from a closet in the middle of the hospital wing dressed in war gear, shivering and exhausted.

**Unknown Castle**

Voldemort was listening to the report from one of his men that he had dispatched to Azkaban. The man was just reporting in about the remains of the battle that had taken place on Azkaban.

Voldemort spoke clearly and slowly in his high, cruel voice, "What news do you bring me?"

"My lord, we estimate that there were about 20 wizards sent by the Ministry. They entered the Island not by the front entrance but through some hidden passageway we knew nothing about. We sensed their presence when we felt the wards turning hostile to us."

"Hostile to you?", Voldemort asked sceptically. He was confident in his abilities but Abbadon had told him that no one is invincible and everyone can be won over. But to do such a thing, one would have to be a parslemouth and have an extensive knowledge of ward lore. Possible but not even remotely likely. And yet, there it was.

"Yes my lord", he replied. We felt a change in the wards, but we had no idea what it was until Ruther attempted to disapparate to come and report to you. What was left of him didn't live very long, but that was later. As you had predicted, the ministry had sent a team to the Island fortress to destroy the Dementors and we waited for them on the ship keeping an eye on the sea. When we saw strange lightning in the sky, we immediately dispatched 30 death eaters to investigate. When they did not report back, I lead a team to investigate. By the time we arrived, the ministry people were gone. The first thing we found was eleven bodies. They were just dead, no marks on any of them, as if they had all been slain by the killing curse. With the wards on that island, that should have been impossible, but, as we discovered later, the wards had been tampered with, so who can say what's possible? Another 18, we found among the rubble of the tower. They were all killed in more conventional ways. Ten we found together, it looked like they were ambushed in a body. Four more in another group. It looked like they put up a fight, but were overwhelmed. The final four, we found in the corridors separately. And finally, my lord, not one single dementor anywhere. We conducted a thorough search of the entire island, but found no one else alive. That was when Ruther attempted to disapparate and the wards splintched him into several pieces. After that, we did not attempt a portkey, we had to row until we could be certain we were outside of the wards again before I apparated to the checkpoint to report to you."

Voldemort was troubled. One of his death eaters was missing. That meant that either the ministry had taken a prisoner or that he was a traitor. Either one was bad. He wanted to know the identity of the ones who had cost him so many of his forces. He asked, "Were there any clues as to who did this?"

The man managed to look even more wretched, "My Lord, none among us was a skilled tracker, but even to our untrained eyes, there were a few strange things. Although it was not a full moon, it appears that one of them changed from a wolf to a human." (Of course he was talking about Sirius, but telling the difference between the tracks of a large dog and a wolf is difficult if one lacks the skill). "Another walked with a cane or a staff. Later in the battle, it looked like one leg was dragging as if it were dead."

Voldemort puzzled briefly. The man with the staff was most likely that pestilential Mad-Eye. But the shape shifter? Who could that be? Perhaps one of his inner circle could provide that information. There were still more answers this man could provide, "How do you think they escaped the fortress? Our ship was between them and the shoreline. They couldn't have disapparated or used a portkey and they could not have reached the Island without going through where the front entrance used to be."

The man shook his head, "Your death eaters are still investigating how they got in and how they escaped. Near where the ten were ambushed, it looked like they all gathered there but there were no tracks leading away from there. We also found two boats tied off at a rock where they could have boarded them, but there were no tracks around them.

Voldemort nodded, "What lies in the sea around there?"

He said simply, "There are only a few deserted islands a couple of miles from there, my lord."

He nodded, "They must have used brooms to get outside the wards. From there, they could have used portkeys to return to the ministry. Go and send in Yaxley. He needs to perform some service for me."

The death eater left the room quickly, grateful to have avoided being punished for bringing bad news. He decided it was best not to contradict the Dark Lord by pointing out that the moon had been bright and no brooms were sighted.

Yaxley entered a few minutes later, "My Lord, you sent for me?"

He nodded, "Go and let loose the dementors, Corbin. We need to give them free rein of Britain, harassing the muggles and wizards alike to keep the ministry busy. May be, we can also draw out the enemy who has been killing Dementors."

**Muggle London**

The rest of the night was terrifying, devastating and confusing for muggle London. The dementors attacked randomly, taring the hope, joy and souls away from muggles and disappearing before Aurors could arrive. There were attacks by single death eaters throughout the length and breadth of Wizarding Britain. They would come in, throw a few curses around, killing anyone they saw, starting fires or blowing up buildings and be gone leaving the dark mark glowing in the sky.

After the sixth attack and 13th death, all the Aurors were called in. In fact, Frank had prevailed upon Dumbledore to supplement their forces with the members of the Order of the Phoenix. One such pair that was sent for patrolling were Mundungus Fletcher and Sturgis Podmore.

Sturgis Podmore was a competent wizard but Mundungus was a cowardly thief. They were sent to patrol Yorkshire after having heard reports of 3 attacks in the area. The pair was on patrol near the townhall when Sturgis thought that he saw two death eaters in all their paraphernalia. They had their wands out and were about to cast when he pulled out his wand and shot a bone breaker in their direction. His bone breaker hit one of them in the chest, busting one or two of his ribs. The furious death eater and his companion turned towards them and started firing spells at the pair. Sturgis fought valiantly but Mundungus just tried to stay out of the arc of fire. The death eaters looked like they were using every lethal spell that they knew. Sturgis had to defend himself and Mundungus too while he fought with them however Mundungus's inability was a liability. The thief tried to hinder Sturgis in an attempt to save himself. Sturgis sent a message to the Order. He was just hoping for some help to arrive while he kept delaying them.

The death eaters saw how Mundungus was hindering Podmore and decide to target him more. Mundungus panicked when he realised that they were now targeting him. Podmore took advantage of the situation to shoot a bludgeoning hex at the pair. It struck one of them on the face hard enough to make him flip over. The death eater removed his mask to take in some breath revealing the face of Alecto Carrow.

Alecto and Amicus Carrow were very temperamental and were versed in the dark arts. In fact, they were ranked alongside the members of Voldemort's inner circle. It was rumoured that he would offer a place to them as soon as there was an opening. They had come in to kill a few muggles and have fun but Podmore had ruined it for them. And now they were very furious.

Amycus got furious and roared, "Avada Kedavra". The green light rushed at Podmore and Mundungus. Dung in his desperation, pulled Podmore between himself and the curse. In the next fraction of a second, Podmore attempted to conjure canaries to take the hit, realized that not only had Mundungus used him as a human shield and that he had a firm grip on his wand arm, making magic useless. He tried to pull his arm free, but he ran out of time as the rushing, green spell seemed to fill his whole world and he knew no more. Mundungus watched in horror as his erstwhile companion, now a rapidly cooling corpse, slumped to the ground.

That was the same moment in which Alice Longbottom, Amelia Bones and Emmeline Vance arrived on the scene in answer to the distress call. Sirius had informed them and since there was no one else to send, they came in themselves.

Alice, as she saw Podmore falling, sent one of her signature curses at Amycus followed by a cutter by Emmeline at Alecto. Alecto who had seen them arriving, pulled Amycus towards her and they fell to the ground, safe from the curse. Emmeline's cutter however had hit Alecto on the face, slashing one of her cheeks and gouging out one of her eyes, leaving a bleeding gash where her eye had been.

Amelia had fired an incarcerous at Mundungus to bind him and take him to the ministry. He was responsible for Podmore's death and he would pay. Maybe it wasn't her lucky day. Dung saw what was coming and disapparated.

Alecto knew she was outnumbered. Amycus had broken ribs and she was losing blood. She raised her wand, yelled, "Morsmordere' before she disapparated with her brother.

**Hogwarts infirmary**

When Harry finally woke up, the angle of the sun told him it must have been nearly noon already. The grumbling in his stomach told him that breakfast was past and lunch fast approaching. The first thing he noticed was Susan who was sitting on a chair beside his bed. He stirred, "Sue, how long have you been sitting here?"

"About an hour", she replied, "what happened yesterday? Why are you all here again?"

Daphne, who came over to join them answered, "Nothing much. Some dementors and a couple of death eaters. That's all."

Harry nodded, "The contraption that Moody used took care of many of them before they could even get to us or we would have been in trouble." Rubbing his growling tummy, Harry asked, "Why did I sleep so late? Did she dose me again?"

Susan shook her head, "No, not that, my love. She told me that it would go better for you if she let you sleep and wake up naturally. Now, I've heard enough of your bits and pieces of information. Tell me everything that happened."

Hermione who had come to join them along with Ron, said, "I will tell you."

Before she could start, Harry said, "Please make sure that Madam Pomfrey does not see us huddled together or we will all be in trouble."

Ron grinned, "Oh, we have put a silencing charm on her office door. A handy nifty spell that we have learnt. She won't hear anything."

Harry nodded, "Go on then, Hermione."

It took about half an hour for her to tell everything. After that Harry turned to Susan, "I hope you aren't angry with me, Sue."

She shook her head, "It was my mistake to over-exert myself so many times. But I remember to have asked you not to finish all of them before I can join you again."

He chuckled, "I promise there are many more left for us to fight."

The newspaper arrived by that time. Hermione opened it to the front page and gasped loudly. Harry asked her, "Hermione, is everything alright?"

She showed the paper to him which had the headline, "The Dark mark appears throughout Wizarding Britain. 35 dead, 20 injured."

Harry read the newspaper at once and when he read that Podmore was one of the casualties, he felt aggrieved. He was not very close to Sturgis but had interacted with the man on occasion. He was a good bloke, to say the least.

He decided to ask Dumbledore about it later. He tried to find out about the raid on Azkaban. It was just a small piece of news in the lower half of the paper. The ministry stated that they had received information which warranted investigation into the former prison. Investigators had met with an ambush there. There was no mention of Dementor slayings.

**Headmaster's office**

About an hour later, Harry had conducted a successful raid on the kitchen before going to meet with the headmaster in his office. He found Dumbledore in a most uncharacteristic rage. He asked cautiously, "Professor, is everything alright?"

Dumbledore said gravely, "Emmeline informed me that Podmore died because Mundungus Fletcher dragged him in front of an incoming killing curse. Mundungus has been missing since then."

This statement filled Harry with rage. But he tried to keep his cool and asked him, "What will you do when you find him, professor?"

"Hand him to the ministry to be tried", Dumbledore answered.

"NO professor. Podmore was there in the great hall when I declared the blood war and as such, he was under my protection. Mundungus is for me to deal with."

Dumbledore tried to reason with him, "My boy, he is a criminal of the Ministry."

Harry thundered, "It is by the will of Mother Magic that I claim Fletcher's life forfeit. It is also in accordance with the ancient laws. Do you wish to contest my claim?"

Dumbledore knew he couldn't but he could ask for a boon, "Lord Peverell, as a supplicant I ask a boon of you."

Harry looked at him, "I will grant any boon, professor but not his life."

Dumbledore said grimly, "No, that is forfeit. I ask that you give him to Alastor Moody when you find him. Moody will dispense your justice to him."

Harry agreed to that. When he left Dumbledore's office and was in the Chamber of Secrets, he raised his voice and called, "Dobby, Kreacher, Matty."

The three elves appeared before him bowing very low to him, "How can we serve master?"

"You are all to track down the thief Mundungus Fletcher. When you find him, bring him to this chamber and hold him here until I come to deal with him. This task takes precedence over any other task that you might have."

Kreacher's face twisted into a hideous expression that Harry had never seen on him before, "Lousy thief. Steals masters things. Kreacher will catch him alright!"

Harry realized that the old elf was grinning. This was an assignment he would do with gusto.

With quick bows, the three elves disappeared with soft pops.

* * *

**A/N- I loved the reviews that my awesome readers posted for me. Trust me I was over-whelmed.**

**1\. I am going to take this series to the end.**

**2\. I am not planning to abandon any of my stories.**

**3\. Writing is something that alleviates a lot of my worries and keeps me busy intellectually. I am not going to give it up and I hope my stories will keep entertaining you all like they have been. We will ride into the sunset together. Cheers to you all amazing folks out there.**


	25. Chapter 25

It had been three days since Harry sent the elves to find and capture Mundungus Fletcher and yet the thief was still at large. The elves hadn't managed to track him down and he certainly wasn't going to surrender himself voluntarily. Although he was as yet unaware that Lord Peverell had declared his life forfeit, he was not willing to face Dumbledore's wrath. Frank had said nothing on the matter yet nor was the ministry outwardly doing anything about it but behind the scenes, every Auror was looking for the thief. Dung, the thief that he was, was hiding somewhere unknown to everyone. Meanwhile, Harry had sent a letter to Alastor Moody and talked to him about it.

Moody had told him that Albus had conveyed to him that Harry had claimed his life as forfeit. Harry had in turn told him that he will deliver the thief to him when he was captured and Moody could do whatever he wanted to with the thief. Moody for his part, was willing to torture him until he squealed like a pig and then would hand him over to the ministry. The ministry would get to dispense justice to him in the end. After all, neither Harry nor Moody wanted the ministry to feel that its authority was being usurped.

Much more publicly, the manhunt was going on for the Carrows. They were among the most violent and adept death eaters. It wouldn't do to let those two roam around spreading terror. Since the death eaters had gone all out, it was getting worse. Just a day ago, a family of muggles in Sheffield was killed at the hands of three death eaters. A car full of muggles had been torched and the poor helpless muggles had died inside. A bus had been overturned in Yorkshire which had resulted in the deaths of 30 more muggles. Muggle baiting was getting worse and then there were the dementors. The dementors that Voldemort had set on the common public were roaming freely around and spreading depression and feeling of coldness among them. There had also been a few attacks on some of the iconic monuments of Britain which infuriated the muggle prime minister when Frank told him it was wizard attacks. He knew he was helpless. The Aurors were also trying to stem the damage which was caused but it was insufficient.

The Aurors weren't untouched either. Some of the newer and green recruits had found themselves going up against the more talented death eaters and had ended up dead. 10 more Aurors had died so far. A small child who tried to murder his whole family had been found to be under the imperious curse. A simple wizard who was a humble shop owner in one of the alleys adjacent to Diagon Alley had been taken to St. Mungo's after he had been taken down trying to kill Proudfoot and Savage who were patrolling the alley. The shopkeeper too was found to be under the imperious curse and currently was undergoing treatment. Apart from the dead, a lot of them were injured and had to be taken to St. Mungo's which had started to overflow.

Sirius, after a quick consultation with Harry, had opened up one of his properties situated somewhere near the Scottish border to use as an infirmary for the Aurors. 5 Healers and 10 trainee healers were always on duty in this new location. Every victim of the imperious curse and many of the Aurors who were otherwise injured in battle were being treated at this location. In a way, it was a secret infirmary. Only those who were directly involved knew anything about it at all.

The muggle born network did all they could to help the ministry. If they saw a lone death eater and they were sure they could take them down, they would even risk their lives in doing so. So far, 5 death eaters had been felled by some of those belonging to the muggle-born network. Mr. O'Neil was busy with their operations. Hestia's hearth had become a busy place due to the comings and goings of the wizards. They also worked as an information centre where one could leave messages if they couldn't reach the ministry otherwise.

In addition to that, attacks were starting all over Europe. In the last few days, remnants of Grindelwald's knights and followers had stirred a rebellion in France which led to the DMLE getting caught up in dealing with them. There had been a surprise attack in the Wizarding section of Paris. It had been a jolt to the wizarding world in France for they never expected the war to come to their doorstep again. They had thrown in every resource at their disposal while Monsieur Delacour was assigned the duty of recruiting and training a corps of about 60 wizards (Something that he had already done in secret in support of Harry's request starting last summer) who were to go and help Wizarding Britain on short notice. These men were already being kept on Battle ready status. They were instructed to only train and nothing else.

Several former students from Durmstrang Academy who turned out to be dark wizards in later life were seen leading their own little rebellions across the length and breadth of that part of Europe necessitating that they be dealt with by force. Madam Alexandrov, the head of DMLE in Bulgaria had been forced to use her secret force to crush this rebellion which had started in her country. As her men had been training for war, she had things under control. With the fires burning in his own home, the Bulgarian Minister had the sense to see the way forward for him. He had given free rein to Madam Alexandrov to deal with the rebellion and promised her all his support whenever Wizarding Britain asked for help. They still needed help though for the numbers were not in their favour.

There were similar incidents happening all across Europe. This led to magical governments across Europe getting engaged in dealing with them. The most shocking aspect of it all was that all the dark wizard groups claimed to be allied with Voldemort who was leading his own civil war in Wizarding Britain. The up side was that they were now all ready to help Wizarding Britain because they felt that the fire needed to be put out before it turned into a raging inferno.

The worst of it all perhaps was the fact that trouble had started brewing in Greece. Unconfirmed reports said that a single wizard was wreaking havoc through the country all on his own. Quite a few wizards had been killed trying to deal with him. It looked like the magical government was floundering as the people lost confidence in its ability to protect them.

**Headmaster's Office - Hogwarts**

Harry entered the Headmaster's office with a scowl on his face and a copy of The Daily Prophet in his hand, not for the first time this week. He slapped the paper down on the desk, standing over it, leaning on his knuckles, "Headmaster, We've got to do something! Just look at these headlines. There have been attacks all over Wizarding Britain and Europe, all in Tom's name."

The older man took a moment to stroke his beard before he responded, "Yes, Harry, I've seen the paper. Won't you sit down?" He indicated a chair, just behind where Harry stood.

Harry turned, grabbed the chair by the arms and pushed it back a couple of feet. He started pacing in front of Dumbledore's desk, "No thanks, Professor, I need to pace. They're going all-out, causing as much havoc as they can. People are dying. We've got to stop them."

Dumbledore steepled his hands as he looked over his half-moon spectacles at the young lord. It would be hard for anyone to believe that just a year ago, this young man was short for his age, skinny and wearing glasses. This young man looked like he could break a man in half with his bare hands now. And fight. Few, if any could match him in a duel. He spoke in his calm, reasonable tone, "Harry, you can't take them all on by yourself. You can hardly go popping all over Great Britain putting down attacks everywhere, never mind Europe."

Harry stopped pacing, pulled the chair up to the desk and sat down hard with his elbows on his knees, "no. Yes… I mean, you're right, of course. But, can't I at least take out some of these dementors? They're really bad for morale and the muggles can't even see them."

Dumbledore nodded slowly before answering, "Have you thought this through?"

Harry stared wide-eyed at the older man, "What do you mean? Nobody but me can take out those slimy soul-sucking fiends. What else is there to consider?"

Dumbledore pulled a bowl of lemon drops toward him from the corner of his desk and offered them to Harry. The young lord waved them off before Dumbledore popped one into his own mouth, "For one thing, they pop up, do their damage and disappear again. By the time anyone could summon you, it would be all over."

Harry nodded before Dumbledore continued, "… And, that ability of yours is, shall we say, not very common. It might be in your best interest to keep something like that as a surprise for when we really need it."

Harry bowed his head and shook it as if to deny what he was hearing, "Anything else I hadn't thought of?"

Dumbledore answered, "As a matter of fact, yes. You are leading these students, training them, vastly improving their chances in what must shortly come to pass. If you are running all over the country, trying to do the jobs of all the Aurors, not only will you be exhausted, but your friends will not benefit from your leadership."

Harry met the steady gaze of the leader of the Order of the Phoenix. This fellow was about as unflappable as a man could get. He was a veteran of two wars and still an important leader in the current conflict. Harry nodded firmly, "Alright then. We'll do it your way. But you must promise. If something comes up where I can make a difference, you must let me know."

To his credit, the old Headmaster did not hesitate to agree, "I can do that. But in return, I want you to keep on doing everything you can to prepare your friends."

**Quidditch field**

"Come on Harry!", yelled Angelina, "Pay attention! That's the third time that you barely dodged a Bludger. Looks like you can't even see it coming."

Harry sighed. His mind was still back in the meeting in the Headmaster's office instead of on the practice. With visions of death eaters, dementors and Tom Riddle before him, he wasn't on form at all. He shook his head to clear it, "Sorry Angelina, I was preoccupied. I promise to pay attention now."

He was as good as his word. For the rest of the practice, he had his head in the game, proving once again that he was the best seeker and the best flyer in the school. Not only did he neatly evade every Bludger that came his way, he also tracked down and caught the Snitch in less than five minutes, six times out of the ten that Angela released it.

By the end of the practice, Angelina was all smiles, "All right you lot, that'll have to do for now. Clear off and get to the showers."

Harry dismounted his broom and climbed the stands to join Susan. She had taken a seat there to watch her handsome, young man after the morning run.

As he approached, she stood and hugged him. After they had hugged for about a minute, they were interrupted by wolf whistles coming from the pitch. Fred George and a few others who hadn't quite left the pitch yet, had stopped to give Harry the gears, "Get a room.", Said Gred.

Forge rejoined, "Who's the man."

Susan blushed until her face matched her hair, but it didn't go any further. Angelina glared at the twins, "Don't you two have anything better to do?"

They shook their heads as one, "No, not really…"

But they both yelped and ran off as she zapped them mercilessly with stingers. Harry couldn't help but chuckle as he waved his thanks to the team captain.

Harry turned back to Susan, "They're right you know, snogging isn't a spectator sport. How about you and me take a walk down by the lake?"

She reached up to fist bump his shoulder playfully before taking his arm, "That sounds good to me."

As they walked arm-in-arm toward the lake, she asked him, "Harry, I have noticed lately that you seem so very anxious and tired. You need a really good break."

Harry allowed himself to sag as he let down his leader persona and let his real worry, care and near exhaustion show. It was no use trying to pretend before Susan, she could see right through him. He confirmed what she had observed, "The war is giving me a permanent headache. So many people are dying and suffering. It's awful, sue. And they all look to me to end it." He looked around the lake, where a well-worn path marked where the students had been doing their morning runs almost from the start of the school year, "We've all been training so hard. We're all better than any kids have a right to be and yet… How many more will have to die before we can stop one mad man. How many more of our friends, our family? Your parents, my parents. All are dead because of one maniac. I swear that if I could find him, I would…"

Susan wrapped herself around his arm and laid her head on his shoulder, "I have no doubt that you will, when the time comes.".

Harry turned to embrace her again, "That's just it. 'When the time comes'. On the one hand, more time to prepare. On the other, more time for innocent people to suffer. For me, the time can't come soon enough, but Dumbledore…"

Susan pulled back from him to look up into his face. She asked, "What about Dumbledore?"

He glanced up at the small tower where the Headmaster's office peeked out, "Dumbledore says the time will come soon enough. We can't rush it, nor can we delay."

Susan nodded, "Sounds like our Headmaster alright. Enough about him. What are we going to do about you?"

Harry looked at her for a moment, baffled, "Me? What about me?"

She reached up to pat his cheeks and re-arranged his face into a smile, "Remember? Tired, anxious, the weight of the world on your shoulders? You need a break. What are we going to do about that?"

He nodded, "Oh, that. I won't deny that I need a break. Even if it's only for a day or two. Any ideas where we could go? The borders are sealed and Sirius and Remus know about the Potter manor. We won't be able to have any quality time there with those two hanging around."

She batted her eyes coyly, "We? You mean you're inviting me to come with you? Ok, I accept. I have wondered what that wonderful lodge would look like in Springtime."

He asked, "What lodge?"

Her eyes sparkled to match her impish grin, "Surely you haven't forgotten? The Rosier hunting lodge where we had stayed for the night. The Easter holidays are coming up. We can go AWOL for a day or two there. I remember you told me that not everyone knows about its location so we would be safe from the death eaters and the ministry."

Harry grinned, "A nice plan, Sue. Instead of going to London for Easter, we will go to the lodge while others make their way to the train station. I will ask Dobby to furnish the place and stock it with supplies just in case. And promise me that we are not taking anyone else with us."

She smiled brightly, "Of course not. We will be taking no one else with us. But remember to inform them that we are taking a well deserved vacation, so that they won't go insane looking for us."

With their plans made, Harry took a deep breath and stood up straighter. Just having something besides drills, school work and constant training to look forward to seemed to have breathed new life into him. It was then that Harry recounted how hard he, the Aurors and all his friends had been working for nearly a year now. He had fought battles that quite literally landed him in the hospital wing with exhaustion more than once. The final battle wasn't far off and They'd best take a break before that time came. The serenity and quiet of the lodge with his lady by his side for a couple of days would be just what the healer ordered.

**Unknown Castle**

"Emmett", said Voldemort to the German, "trusting your word, I invoked help in Lord Abbadon's name. They have stirred up quite a lot of trouble across Europe. They are all busy now dealing with their own problems. I don't expect that any of them will leave their homes vulnerable to come and support Wizarding Britain when the time comes."

The German nodded, "Yes Dark Lord. That part of your plan seems to be having the desired effect. The time has come to implement the next phase."

Voldemort's lips curled up in a sneer as he played along with the master tactician pretending that this was all Voldemort's idea, "Yes, my plan is so brilliant and convoluted. Indulge me. What is the next phase of my plan?"

"Dark lord, as you may recall, I asked previously if you had a place for the final duel in mind. We will need to form strategies around it."

The old snake-faced wizard nodded, "yes, I intend for the battle to take place at Hogwarts".

He asked curiously, "Why Hogwarts?"

Voldemort let nothing show as he lied. One of his horcruxes was concealed there and he had to retrieve it. It would also be a devastating blow to that interfering old fool, Dumbledore. There could be no other place for the final battle. He told the German a partial truth, "Hogwarts is a sacred ground, Wagner. The castle has stood for centuries and has always worked as guardian of this nation. Attacking it and defeating the ministry there would leave no doubt as to my absolute right to rule."

He nodded, "Then we will need a comprehensive battle plan. To do that, we will need to know every detail of their defences and resources: a highly detailed map, ward schemes, fortifications, abilities of witches, wizards, magical creatures and anything else we can think of. Every single one of them must join us or face their demise, my lord."

Voldemort had to admit, he liked the way this man thinks. He nodded, "Very well. Many of my faithful were students there. Make it the work of my inner circle to pool all the information we have about the castle. In three days time, we will begin to create the battle plan."

Wagner didn't miss a beat. Surely three days was not enough to record every detail of such an ancient and vast place, but it would do for a start. He answered, "It will be my pleasure, my lord. I also want to know if you have another army."

"Another army? To what do you refer?"

The German patiently explained, "I have heard tales of your greatness and your formidable skills in the dark arts, my lord. Mr. Meyer told us that you mastered almost every dark art that Lord Abbadon taught you. And I have heard that you had an army of inferi at your disposal. I was curious if you still have it, my lord."

His mind went to the grotto where the locket of Slytherin, his locket lay hidden. He nodded, "Now that you mention it, I do have an army of inferi. I will see that they are in position before we launch our assault. Now how is the training of my followers coming?"

He did not hide his disgust, "They are both arrogant and undisciplined. There is some progress but they refuse to work at the drills and formations. It would seem that I do not command their respect."

There was a flash of red from deep within the dark lord's eyes as Wagner spoke. Although he knew that most of them were spoiled brats, born of privilege and would end up as nothing more than fodder for the Parasite spell when the time came, he needed as many alive as could be managed for that purpose. He answered, "It could be the dark mark."

Wagner asked, "The dark mark? What does that have to do with anything?"

Voldemort carefully explained, "You refuse the dark mark. As a matter of a magical oath, I have respected that. But without it, they see you as an outsider and consequently less than one of the faithful."

Wagner nodded, "You know your followers better than me. What can be done?"

Voldemort responded by pressing his wand to his dark mark, sending a summons to his followers to gather in the training grounds. He rose from his seat and headed outside. As he went he ordered Wagner, "come with me. I shall attend to this." He spotted the back of Malfoy who had been loitering outside of the inner chamber and was now several paces ahead of him. The other death eaters were similarly hastening to the meeting place. The Germans, out of curiosity followed them.

A minute later, Voldemort stood before the assembly.

He applied the Sonerous spell to make himself heard, even if he only whispered, "I have heard that many of you are being less than diligent with your training." He paused and looked around at his followers, looking for one who was showing disdain toward the Germans. He intoned, "Crucio!", as the one he chose crumbled to the ground in agony. After he had made his point, he lifted the spell and continued, "I am displeased with your lack of progress. These men", he indicated the Germans, with some emphasis on Wagner, "have come a long way, at great risk to themselves, to improve your combat skills. I trust that you will all give them your full cooperation." With that, he ended the Sonerous spell and turned to Wagner, "I expect things will go better now. Keep training them and train them hard. We may not have much time left before the final battle. Now I am leaving to run some errands. In my absence, you will be responsible for everything in the castle."

Wagner nodded, "If my lord does not presume it too forward, may I suggest setting loose some of your werewolves upon the wizarding world and the muggles alike. They need the taste of battle and combat and shielding them wouldn't help us."

Voldemort nodded, "Do as you see fit. You do not need their permission but inform Rodolphus and Rabbastan before you do anything."

He bowed, "As you wish, my lord."

Voldemort was finally going to check on his horcruxes. He knew his protections were formidable but he couldn't risk taking any chances. As Abbadon had said, "there is no magic in the world which cannot be unravelled."

**Africa**

Harsh was sitting in council with two of his mystics. These two were among his favourite pupils and their current assignment made them responsible for the security of Europe. When the dark wizards started their attacks around the continent, they had sought him out in Africa. It wouldn't do for them to stay idle when people were dying all around them.

Burgove, as he was known, was saying, "Guruji, there have been dark wizard attacks throughout the length and breadth of the continent. People are dying. From what I could gather from the few of those that we captured alive, Voldemort has called upon them to stir up trouble around the entire continent so that no one will go to help Wizarding Britain when the final battle comes."

The other one, Makrand said, "And it will not do for us to sit idle, guruji. This is our duty. This is what you have always taught us. We seek your permission to launch a counter assault against them because the countries by themselves can't suppress these rebellions."

Harsh who was listening to everything with grim expressions, said, "Vats, I have never stopped you from doing your duty. You know our rules. We shall not come in public nor should anyone know about us. Working within those restrictions, you are free to take any action you see as just and fair. You are free to crush those rebels and restore the order in the places where it is happening. You don't even need my permission for that. Direct everyone to launch their operations as they would seem right but don't engage the mage in Greece."

Makrand asked, "But why Guruji?"

"Because he is my nemesis. Our final confrontation has been long since due. While you suppress these rebellions, I will fight him. Go and be victorious, children. I will go and fight him. If mother magic be willing, we will see each other someday again."

With that they left and he called, "Martand."

Martand entered the room about a minute later, "Yes Guruji."

"Martand, please see to it that my trunk is prepared. I am leaving on a very urgent errand to Greece. You are in charge here until I can return. If I don't return in a month then know that I have returned to the folds of mother magic. Contact Adrishpuram then and have Varah Mihir appoint the next lord of the mystics."

The mystic looked as if he was crafted out of stone and he nodded curtly, "as you wish, Guruji."

As the mystic was leaving, Harsh said, "You have served me like a son for all these years. When I return, I will see if I can do some justice to these selfless services that you rendered to me."

As Martand left, the mystic called another name, "Himwat"

Himwat, the mystic in-charge in Wizarding Britain came in, bowed to him touching his feet, "Pranam Guruji."

"Ayushman Bhav, Vats", Harsh blessed him. After the mystic had taken a seat, he asked, "How are the conditions in Wizarding Britain?"

"Guruji, the fiends called Dementors have been let loose. Death eaters are conducting single raids and the ministry finds it hard to combat every such instance. They are fighting but they are taking losses. I wouldn't be worried if they were fighting wizards but they are fighting helpless muggles and that is what angers me. I wish we could do something about it."

Harsh nodded, "We can't let muggles be collateral damage in this war, vats. I allow you to use your mystics to combat the death eaters where you see them but you are not to kill any of them. Chase them away, scare them but don't go killing them. Send your best men to deal with the Dementors. They can't kill them but they can chase them away from the muggles. And remember to send obliviators with them. I don't want our secret existence to be compromised."

The mystic beamed, "I will do as you say, Guruji."

Harsh's words had taken a load off him. He was itching to fight and save the muggles but so far they hadn't been allowed. Now at least the muggles wouldn't die.

**The Spy**

A faction of students who belonged to the dark faction was meeting in the serpent's pit. These students belonged to families which were serving Voldemort or were secretly helping to advance his cause. Since a bunch of students had been expelled from the school, the wind had been taken out of their sails and they were literally shoved to the side. In fact, even in their own house, people stayed well away from them so as not to raise suspicions and to avoid getting into trouble. They knew of those who were openly aligned with Harold Peverell but they could do nothing about it. The castle was the stronghold of the light for now with Albus Dumbledore as the headmaster. However, they were biding their time to wait for the perfect opportunity to serve their master, the dark lord.

These students opposed everything that those aligned to light tried to do in the serpent's pit and their efforts were spearheaded by the trio of Dryden, Everly and Jugson. Whatever anyone planned, it was bound to lead back to them. They were very meticulous in planning and even helped others in execution of their plans. It was the misfortune of the dark side that their attempts were wasted every time they tried to do something.

Shortly after the battle of Hogsmeade, they had tried to grievously injure Conrad Du Vant. They had planned a series of wards which were meant to injure the boy fatally and without timely help, he would have succumbed to his injuries but to their woe, Conrad had found out about it. In retribution, he pranked the hell out of the lot of them. Since then they hadn't tried anything again. This time however, one of their numbers had received a message from the outside which told them to spy on Harold Peverell and everyone he consorted with. For most of the day, the said boy was with his girl friend, Susan Bones and at times with other friends. He usually disappeared in the dead of night but where or how, they didn't know. They had tried to follow him at times but he knew so many hidden passages and short cuts in the castle that it was impossible to keep track of him at all times. What they did know was that he was going to Dumbledore's office more than could be considered normal. Lately, he was seen in the hospital wing far more than his share.

One evening, Graham Montague cornered three of his housemates namely Everly, Dryden and Ares Roper. When he had them secluded in his dorm he started talking to them, "as you all have expressed your desire to serve the dark lord time and again, one such chance has arrived."

Everly and Dryden were alert at once and intently listened to whatever Montague was saying, "My uncle, who was blasted off the family tree to fool the world, sent me a letter last night. It was sent in the name of my father. In his letter Uncle has asked me to put spies on the tails of a few people in the castle."

Dryden asked him, "whose tails?"

"He wants us to keep an eye on Harold Peverell, Neville Longbottom and the new defense teacher. And the dark lord wants us to learn as much as we can, from the defense teacher. He also wants us to form a group of students who would willingly die for him in case there is an invasion of the castle and the ministry leads a fight against them."

This plan got Dryden and Everly worried. Voldemort was playing a dangerous game and if there was a force inside the castle which could thwart the ministry's attempts at resisting Voldemort and his forces, it would be highly prejudicial to them.

Everly asked him, "What's in it for us, Montague?"

Montague barked, "You get to serve the Dark Lord and yet you seek some reward, Everly?"

Everly sneered, "A Slytherin doesn't do anything without any kind of gain in it for them, Montague. That is one of the first things about being a Slytherin. If you want a selfless wizard, you should rather ask a lion or a puff."

Montague sneered in return, "I wouldn't ask one of them to help me even if I was dying, Everly. Now, my uncle has told me that the Dark Lord said that he would brand us as his loyal followers if we did this service to him. When he wins the war, we will have our pick of the spoil to choose from."

Roper interrupted, "What makes you think that he will win, Montague? As we have seen, Peverell and the Dark Lord have clashed twice since he returned to a body. Both times, the Dark Lord had to retreat."

"You doubt his prowess, Roper? He didn't retreat out of fear but it was strategic. They were not fighting a straight duel with him but ambushed him. With all of his followers dead, he had only one way out. He had to retreat before they could overwhelm him. He will avenge everyone who has been killed by the ministry since the second war began."

Everly asked him, "So how do you propose to spy on Peverell or the others? I mean we have classes to go to, study for our NEWTs and then we have to worry about our future jobs."

"When the Dark Lord rules, we will have our pick, Everly. Help me and I will make sure that the Dark Lord knows of our services to him when it is time so that you can be sufficiently rewarded. I have convinced a few other students who will keep an eye on their designated persons. Soon we will have some useful news to share with the dark lord."

Dryden asked, "And what about that group of students?"

Montague grinned, "I have seen to it. I have a group of students who will willingly follow me into serving the dark lord. We have been learning curses and hexes from the new Professor since the year began and we believe ourselves to be quite proficient. Trust me that when the battle comes, we will give the light side a run for its money."

This was unexpected for them. They would have to inform their liege lord and do it fast. However they would have to tell him to be discrete and not do anything which would have their cover blown. Apart from the two of them, only Roper and Montague knew everything. If someone not privy to their meeting knew about it then it would lead to them being exposed as traitors or spies.

Roper asked, "So when do we start?"

**The Auror office**

Moody walked into his interrogation chamber which had been redecorated a few days ago. He had asked his men to paint the walls in just the right combination of reds and browns to make it appear that they were spattered with blood to present a gruesome sight to any new prisoner. There were also three humongous jars containing the bodies of three well-known dead death eaters preserved in formaldehyde (they were really wax figures in coloured water, but the prisoners didn't need to know that). One was Bellatrix Lestrange as she looked at her moment of death, her eyes spread in terror, the spell in the middle of her chest, and her arms stretched in helplessness. Another one looked like the recently killed Macnair. The third jar seemed to only contain fragments of what might have been Peter Pettigrew, a grim reminder of the price for treachery.

The pet that Moody had brought from Azkaban was in the torture chamber awaiting his pleasure. He had plenty of time to take in his surroundings in the dim light before Moody came to attend to him. The Master Auror had been too caught up in his duties to be able to interrogate him personally. Robards had interrogated him in another chamber where he was not subjected to face Moody's techniques of interrogation.

As the lights turned on, the captive flinched at the sight of the life-sized bodies in liquid. They looked so real to him that he lost control over his bladder. Whoever did this to the renowned death eaters would not even spare a thought before killing him ruthlessly. Then his gaze moved to Moody who stood at the door, casually leaning on his staff with a feral grin on his face. He was filled with despair at his impending doom.

"Charming, aren't they?", Moody growled, "The ministry allowed me to keep these trophies, ya know? I love looking at them and feeling satisfaction at the thought that they were put down like the rabid dogs they were. The same fate awaits your dark lord. I tell ya lad that I will cheerfully duel anyone to get the chance to add his severed head to my trophy collection in my office."

The death eater was feeling repulsed and a little sick with all of Moody's talk, but to his credit, said defiantly, "So what? You will kill me? Do that. I will not give you the satisfaction to see me broken."

Moody grinned, "It matters very little to me whether you break or not. Ya see, I enjoy my work. They're all like you in the beginning, all tough and brave and 'You'll never break me.' But in the end, when you're screaming, begging me to end it, crying for your Mommy, telling me everything I want to know, just to make it stop, you won't even know that it's you doing the talking. I had one tough guy last for hours, but he told me everything he knew before he bled out."

"No", he said defiantly, "For I will be dead and you will have nothing." taking a leaf out of the muggle's books, they kept a poison capsule in their hollow teeth. He went to swallow the cyanide capsule that was concealed in one of his back teeth, but found only a void there.

Moody's face twisted into a nasty grin, "Missing something?", as he held up the capsule. "Clever, using muggle poison in case of capture, but we found it. Besides, what do you want to die for?", he said in a reasonable tone, "You have no dark mark. You are German. What loyalty do you owe to old Tom anyway?"

The prisoner considered for a moment, but held his peace. He was a mercenary. If word ever got out that he betrayed an employer, he would never work again. It was just as likely that his own dark lord would make an example of him for allowing himself to be captured. No, there was no way forward. Just him, this room and his torturer. The German gritted his teeth, bracing for whatever was going to come. He was a hardened veteran and had quite the experience with dark magic. He knew the best Moody could hope for was using the torture curses and that he would break down. If Moody thought that way then he was in for a surprise. What the helpless soul didn't know was that Moody had no intention to use magic to torture him. But he would soon learn.

Moody ripped open his left sleeve and pointed at the bare patch of skin there, "Why is there no dark mark on your arm? How can he take a risk using you but not marking you?"

When the death eater didn't deign to reply, Moody picked up an instrument from his torture rack which looked like a pair of muggle pliers. Waving it in his face, Moody said grimly, "Ya know the muggles don't have magic to treat their ailments? If they have a problem with their teeth, they have to go to a muggle doctor who pulls out their teeth with an instrument like this one. I am told it hurts like hell without some medication to numb the pain. I'm very curious to see what that pain would look like to a wizard."

The captive's pupil spread in terror at the thought of what was about to come. He clamped his mouth firmly shut not allowing Moody to carry out his nefarious plan. When Moody was frustrated with the German's refusal to comply, he punched him hard on the jaw with his fist. A crack sounded and the captive's mouth fell open. Moody didn't hesitate to shove a block of wood in his mouth so it would remain open. After making sure that the piece of wood was properly wedged in place, he put the plier on one of his front teeth and pulled. The teeth remained firm but the prisoner grunted with the pain. He could already feel his jaw muscles spasming as his jaw was forced open beyond its normal range.

Grinning, the old Auror tapped the tool against the prisoner's teeth, "Good teeth. Do they put fluoride in the water where you come from? No matter, I'm sure we can do better." He applied the tool to the same tooth again. With a twist and a firm tug, the incisor came away with a trickle of blood. The prisoner screamed with pain as his torturer held up the tooth in front of him. Happy with his success, he went on to pull three more teeth. By this time, the prisoner's thrashings and screams were beginning to trail off. Moody could see that the man was very pale and that the eyes were beginning to roll up in his head.

Moody poured a blood regenerating draught down the man's throat and enervated him, "Oh no, you don't get to pass out. Not until I'm done with you."

The German came back to full consciousness and his struggles to break loose were renewed.

Moody observed, "That's better. Ya know, this wouldn't go so hard on you if you weren't wasting your energy on trying to be brave. Are you ready to talk now? I really hope you're not. I have so many more things I want to try out on you. I think I'll try breaking a few bones the muggle way next. So, what do you say?"

In his restraints, the prisoner shook his head as much as he could.

Now, Moody seemed eager to get on with it. He put the pliers back and picked up a heavy hammer with one round end and one flat end. He held it up before his prisoner, "Do you know what this is? The muggles call it a ball-peen hammer. I understand that it's proper use is for making gaskets, whatever a gasket is. More important to you is that this is an implement of choice for criminals or goons who are known as mob enforcers or something like that. Let's see how it works, shall we?"

With that, he tapped the round end of the hammer head on one of the prisoner's knee caps, whose eyes watered with renewed pain. Moody said, "Ya brought this on yourself." In a flash of movement, Moody wound up and with two swift strikes, shattered both the man's kneecaps. The prisoner's entire world turned scarlet with pain as his muscles spasmed in reaction, tearing the shattered pieces apart. His mind fled and the room filled with the wailing of a wounded animal.

When he came back to himself, there was so much pain that he couldn't seem to catch his breath. The wooden block was gone from his mouth and his lower jaw still ached where his missing teeth had been, but that was nothing. What was trying to tare his legs off? Everything from his hips down was one massive muscle spasm and the pain would not stop. His throat felt like he'd been screaming for an hour at least.

Moody looked at him with clinical curiosity, "There you are. Seems that the hammer did an adequate job. Are you ready to talk yet?"

The German, still defiant, realized that his mouth was free and spat in the Auror's face. Moody didn't even bother to wipe the mixture of blood and spittle from his face. That maddening grin didn't even waver, "Oh, good. Ya still have some fight in ya? What will I get to use next?"

That was when Dobby appeared in the room, yelling at the top of his voice, "The great Harry Potter wanting to meet you, Master Moody."

Moody said dismissively, "Can't you see that I'm busy, elf. I will visit the lad later."

It was no use. Dobby had his orders. He lunged for Moody, grabbing his hand and they disappeared. The German mercenary would have a reprieve to feel his injuries while the Auror was away to take care of other business. It didn't much matter. With both knee caps shattered and the best magical restraints the Master Auror could devise, he would still be here When Moody came back to finish the interrogation.

**Dung, you stink!**

It was well past curfew. Harry was in the Chamber of Secrets with Vikram , practicing spell casting. Vikram was sitting to one side, watching him. Occasionally he would point out if he felt something was missing or something could be done in a better way but for the most part, he kept quiet, watching Harry in action.

There was a loud crack as the bodies of three elves and a wizard appeared in a tangle of limbs and rope on the chamber floor. Without any apparent transition, Vikram was on his feet with his wand out, pointed at the intruders. He asked sternly, "What is this happening?"

Kreacher was wrapped around Mundungus' head obscuring his vision while Dobby and Matty had him by the legs. Dung was tied up with what appeared to be ropes. He was still struggling and swearing a blue streak, threatening the elves with multiple forms of death if they didn't get off of him.

Harry had to shut down the practice dummies before he could give the arrivals his full attention. He turned to the group and said, "Dobby, Kreacher, Matty, you have done well. Now stand aside and I will deal with him."

As the elves let go, Harry vanished the ropes binding Mundungus. The thief was up in a moment, wand in hand, pointing it at Harry. It was clear that he was afraid because his hand was shaking and he couldn't keep his voice steady. "What is the meaning of this?"

Harry, who still hadn't levelled his wand at the thief, said calmly, "For starters, Dung, I'll thank you for not abusing my elves in that manner. They were acting under my orders. Secondly, they have brought you before me to be judged of your crime."

Mundungus spluttered, trying to bluff his way out of it, "What? You? What crime? You have no right! I'm in the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore will…"

Harry interrupted the thief mid-sentence, "Albus Dumbledore has confirmed my claim on you. He will be of no help to you whatsoever."

Not knowing where he was, Dung turned on his heel, trying to disapparate. The resulting backlash from the mighty war wards of Hogwarts knocked him to the floor with a bloody nose. The older man slowly gathered himself up and raised himself from the floor, his wand still in his hand, he continued to point it at Harry, but not with much conviction.

Harry nodded in satisfaction, "Oh no, you waste of space, you won't be getting out that way."

Dung turned desperately to Vikram, "Won't you stop him? He's mad I tell you."

The Mystic simply continued to look on impassively.

Finally, hoping to stall for time, the thief continued looking for a way out as he asked with feigned innocence, "What Crime? What 'ave I ever done to you 'Arry?"

Harry responded formally, "Mundungus Fletcher, for the crime of murdering Sturgis Podmore, a man who was your friend of more than 17 years, your cohort in battle, a member of The Order of the Phoenix and under my protection by reason of participating in a blood war declared by me as Lord Peverell, you are brought before me to stand and be judged. Your crime was witnessed and reported to me by two members of the ministry Auror force in that you did willingly and with forethought, place your companion deliberately in the path of The Killing Curse to save your own worthless hide. I have heard the specifications and am completely satisfied that you are guilty. Do you have anything to say for yourself before I pronounce sentence?"

Dung spluttered nervously, "There were so many of them. I didn't know help was on the way. I saw the killing curse coming and freaked out. I had no choice, You've got to understand."

Harry started to let his agitation show as his magic crackled in a black aura around him, "No choice? You had lots of choices: you could have blocked, you could have disapparated, you could have summoned an object to block it, you could have laid down your own life. I'm sure I can come up with more. Anything would have been better than what you did! That's what I understand."

Mundungus tried spluttering some more, "You can't judge me. At the very least, you have to take me to the Tribunal. This…"

Harry interrupted him again, "By laws older than Great Britain herself, I have the right. By the grace of Mother Magic I am the lord to several of the ancient blood lines. By prophecy, I am the chosen one. And by oath, I am the leader in this blood war. You killed one who is under my protection and by the Law of Mother Magic, you will answer to me. You must answer for your crime. You have ended the life of your friend. Life must answer for life. Yours is forfeit."

Dung stammered, "Forfeit? You mean? No, you can't. You can't just kill me. You…"

Harry smirked with grim satisfaction, "That's the first thing you've managed to get right all night, Dun. I can't just kill you. Because of a boon I granted to the Headmaster, I have to turn you over to a certain Alastor Moody… alive."

The old thief began to breathe a sigh of relief before Harry continued, "I will, of course, honour that boon, but, who's to say how it happened if you somehow get injured in transit?"

Defiantly, the old thief tried one more time, "No. You can't just pass judgement on me like that. There are laws. I didn't cast the spell that killed him."

Harry nodded grimly, "Yes, there are laws. You maintain your innocence? Very well, by those laws, you may claim the right of trial by combat. I accept. Let's see if you know how to use that stick dangling from your greasy paw." Harry recalled his duel with Malfoy all those months ago. Things weren't going to go so easily for this worthless sack of entrails. Harry still stood, his wand not quite pointing at the other wizard.

That was when Dung remembered the wand in his hand which he still had pointed at the war-mage. He started by trying to cast a stunner. Harry casually caught the spell on his wand and flicked it back as a bone breaker. Mundungus yelped as the spell fractured his left shoulder. Other than the slightest movement of his wand, Harry hadn't even twitched. The older man tried to cover his next movement with a cloud of smoke. By the time he cast his next spell, Harry was already behind him. Dung received a bludgeoner to the back of his head as his bone breaker passed harmlessly through the space where Harry had been standing a second ago. The knock-back sent the older wizard sprawling on his face when the back of his head absorbed the impact.

Before the smoke cloud dissipated, Harry was standing back where he had been. For the second time, Dung picked himself up off the floor. It was a lot harder to do with his fractured shoulder. Harry stood motionless as he watched the sack of rags trying to right itself. There was an audible crack as the fracture in Dung's shoulder dislocated.

But it wasn't over. Not yet. The old man knew he had to beat Harry or die. He rolled to one side and pushed up to his knees then rose to his feet again, the wand still pointing defiantly at Harry, "I know I have no chance. There's no point begging for mercy. I'm a coward. I killed my friend. This is nothing personal."

The thief launched desperately into a series of curses that he piled on as fast as he could cast. Some of them were quite nasty. In response, Harry neatly side-stepped some, caught others, sending them back, mostly at Dung's face and crotch, blocking two of them with conjured flocks of canaries and he even shielded against one. The duel went on for nearly 20 minutes and Harry had yet to cast so much as one offensive spell. He was cool, calm and nearly motionless. On the other side, Dung was drenched with sweat, covered with bruises, bleeding from several wounds, wheezing for breath and his left arm dangled uselessly at his side. His face was an unrecognizable mass of ground hamburger and he was certainly walking funny.

Keeping one eye on the treacherous thief, Harry affected a large yawn. He said, "Well, Dung, it's well past my bed-time. I guess I'd better end this." Dung's eyes went wide as Harry raised his wand in earnest. With a blast like a muggle fire-hose, Harry hit the smelly, ragged old thief with the biggest Terego anyone in the room had ever seen. The old thief went down in a heap, spluttering for air, rolling over and over until he hit the wall. Harry used summoning to remove everything Dung had concealed in his rags and placed them one after another in a sack. To top it off, he transmuted the old thief's rags into a prisoner uniform from Azkaban. He stopped the bleeding from several wounds, just to make sure that his prisoner didn't bleed out before he could face moody, then gently, ever so gently, zapped him in the head with a stunner. Afterall, a man's got to get his rest.

Nodding in satisfaction at his work, he said, "Dobby, go and bring Master Auror Alastor Moody here. Tell him that I need to see him and drag him by his arm if you have to, but bring him here." To the other two elves he said, "Thank-you. You have done well. Please return to your regular duties."

Dobby bobbed his head quickly and vanished with a loud crack. The other two elves vanished a moment later.

Vikram looked at the pathetic heap in the corner, "You showed remarkable restraint, Harry."

Harry, remembering that Vikram had been there the whole time, shook his head, "No, Professor, I didn't. If I had cast any kind of offensive spell at him in the condition I'm in, it would have killed him."

Vikram raised an eyebrow in inquiry, "What do you mean?"

Harry gestured at the condemned man, "You saw that Terego. If that had even been a stunner… In any case, I promised Dumbledore I would turn him over to Moody alive. I keep my promises."

A loud crack announced the arrival of Dobby with Moody in tow.

Alastor spotted Harry, "What's all this? I was interrogatin' a prisoner."

Harry took in the scarred face, missing half its nose, the gruff tone, the constantly moving bright-blue eye. The man wasn't carrying his staff and he had a hammer in one hand. Harry nodded, "Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets, Master Auror. I have someone here who is eager to meet you."

Moody looked at Vikram and said, "Him? We've met. Why couldn't this have waited 'til morning?"

Harry shook his head and pointed at the pathetic heap wheezing in the corner, "That", he said with the tone of absolute contempt, "is someone that you've been looking for. Take your prisoner and go."

Moody looked, noticing Mundungus for the first time, "Where did you get that uniform? Where's he been? How did you find…"

Harry's eyes narrowed, "The uniform was something I whipped up. As for the rest, you can take all the time you want to find that out. I promised Dumbledore that I would deliver him to you alive. He's alive. But I remind you that his life is forfeit. By the ancient laws, I require that you do your part when you are done with him."

Moody walked over and crouched down by Mundungus. With the expert eye of the experienced "interrogator", he appraised the condition of his new charge, "He's been worked over pretty good. In this condition, 'e might not survive a trip through the floo or disapparation.". He stood up and turned back to Harry, "Do ya want me to take 'im anyway?"

Harry handed the bag full of Dung's personal affects over to Moody. Without a word, he walked over to the prisoner. Applying some of what Charak had taught him, it took him about two minutes to mend the ribs so the man wouldn't get a punctured lung from moving around. With a few more gestures, the man was strapped into a stretcher. Harry grunted, "He'll live long enough to see the inside of your office." He turned to Dobby, take these two men where ever Master Moody says. When you are done, you may return to your regular duties."

Moody turned to Harry, "Don't worry, Lad. He'll get all the justice that's coming to him." He addressed Dobby next, "Take us to my safe-house in Hastings."

The elf took Moody by one hand while taking hold of the stretcher with the other hand. With another loud crack, the chamber was a lot more empty.

**We have a spy problem**

They were sitting at the Hufflepuff table for breakfast when Hermione casually said, "Am I the only one who feels that I'm being watched lately? It seems that someone has been trying to figure out my movements."

Terry nodded, "Now that you mention it, I could swear that people have been following me too. Even when I go to the boy's bathroom, I feel like people are keeping an eye on me."

Mandy said, "What's that all about? It's eerie. I thought the pervs were just ogling me all the time. I can feel what it means to be the boy who lived with people watching you every second."

Harry grinned, "Thanks for the understanding, Mandy. You are all correct. We have a spy problem and they aren't very subtle."

"Spy problem?", Justin asked, "What does that mean?"

Daphne answered, "Some of the snakes are watching us at all times. They think they are really crafty but they are clumsy and obvious. There are usually two of them following me. I can spot them any time. If they were allowed, they would even follow me into the dorms."

Susan nodded, "I even had two follow me to where the secret entrance to the chamber lies. I left a packet of dungbombs for them in a fake doorway. It wasn't pretty for them."

Daphne grinned in appreciation, "That was a nice trick. So what are we going to do now?

Harry said simply, "We do nothing to show that we know. Let them follow us all day. Waste as much of their time as you can manage. If you want, you can take them on a tour of the castle. They can't get in the chamber so we are safe. You only need to watch your mouth and don't speak about anything confidential."

Farther down from them, Ernie was still sitting alone at the table, eating his breakfast when Astoria slipped in beside him, "You are making me lose money, Macmillan."

"What do you mean, Greengrass?", he asked tersely.

"I have told you to call me Astoria, Ernie", she cooed, "And please, stop brooding. People are mulling over naming you as Ernie "Brooding" Macmillan."

Ernie scoffed, "Can't you leave me in peace?"

She shook her head, "Not when you are costing me 10 Galleons a day."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, since there are no other betting pools right now, people are betting on when you will get over your brooding. I keep losing because you refuse to move on."

He said curtly, "Do you think that it's easy to move on, Greengrass?"

She smiled, "Of course, it is. I know nothing can compensate for Lilith's loss in your life but she wouldn't want you to sulk for her. She would want you to smile and live for her. Fight and avenge her. You have secluded yourself from your friends when this is the time we all need our friends the most. Is that how you will help Harold Peverell slay Tom Riddle? How will a Macmillan fulfil his duty to a Potter?"

Ernie sighed, "Let's make a deal, Greengrass. You don't pester me and I will try to get over my brooding, as you say. Deal?"

She grinned, "Only if you promise to not shoo me away every time you see me."

**Greece**

The captain of Aurors shouted at the mage whom they had finally cornered somewhere near Athens after he had just killed an entire company of Aurors, "Put down your wand and surrender to us."

The mage was some powerful being for he had killed about 40 Aurors in just the last week and about 60 muggles. The Aurors were baffled because there was no record of his existence prior to this time and nobody seemed to know anything about him. In fact, there had been no dark lord in Greece for the last 50 years so this sudden disruption of peace was a wake-up call they needed.

They had tried to corner the mage at various places but had only lost Aurors to him so they had sent their best Aurors to tackle this menace now. Now that the captain of the guards saw the mage, he was surprised. He hardly looked a day above 50 and it was hard to believe that someone with such a common face could be so destructive. It was the absurdity of the appearance that he had chosen to ask him to surrender rather than outright killing him.

The mage however did not reply but thrust his wand forward and said an inaudible incantation. Nothing seemed to happen for a minute when suddenly the weather changed. The air felt acidic to them. They could feel that they were bathed with acid and boils started developing on the exposed parts of their bodies. Not one of them was untouched and their wands clattered out of their hands, cries of agony going out everywhere around them. The captain of guards knew it was a mistake to have wasted any time waiting for the mage to surrender. Now they were going to die.

Well, he wasn't going to die alone. A barrage of lethal curses erupted from his wand in a steady stream. He wasn't the captain for nothing. A barrage like that would have vaporized any ordinary wizard. But the other wizard simply flicked them all aside with his wand. He felt a boil on his face rapidly swell up then erupt with acid pouring out of it making him hiss in pain. He had decided that he would die but he won't cry and give his enemy any vindictive feeling about having bested them. He could feel his heart slowing down and the air became considerably cooler but the boils! The boils were gone. The deep seated burning sensation remained but was ebbing away slowly.

He realised that someone else had arrived on the scene and had countered the spell which had been giving them a slow painful agonizing death. The newcomer looked like an ordinary bloke dressed in what he recognised was Dhoti, an Indian dress, dragon hide boots and his upper body was covered with what appeared to be armour made of dragon skin. His face was covered with a leather mask and only his brown eyes could be seen which looked full of anger. He had an unusual looking wand in his hand which he held carelessly at his side but his posture told that he was ready for a duel at any moment.

All of the Aurors under his command had lost consciousness by then leaving only him awake to see what was going on. The newcomer was saying, "We meet again, Abbadon."

* * *

Harsh had arrived with some of his chosen mystics in Greece. These were his men who lived in seclusion but were as powerful as Vari or Harsh himself. They did whatever Harsh asked them but they never involved themselves in daily ordinary mundane affairs. He had called on them because he knew that the affair with Abbadon would require them at his side. Cornering him was essential for them and only mystics such as them could hope to stand up to him to be able to do what was needed of them.

When he arrived, his local mystics had told him what they had been able to gather on Abbadon's position. Before getting Harsh's orders, they had sent a company of mystics against Abbadon but he had killed all of them as easily as walking in the garden. That was when they realised that Abbadon was way outside their league. Then they kept track of Abbadon's movements while they waited for Harsh to arrive for they knew he would not stay back if his men were dying.

They kept tracking him and found him in Athens as he was passing through the city. He didn't seem to have any fixed destination in mind or a plan. It seemed as if he was only causing chaos and destruction in his wake without purpose for all the violence. Harsh knew it was an invitation to a duel between them. After nearly 100 years in hiding, the ancient dark master had decided to call Harsh out.

This morning, his mystics informed him that the local Aurors had planned an ambush to trap him and kill him. Harsh had frowned at the proposed plan of the DMLE. Those idiots didn't know that they were playing with fire. Abbadon would willingly walk into whatever trap they had set, kill all of them and be gone. He made haste to reach where the duel was to happen but he was too late. Abbadon had cast a lethal curse which would kill the Aurors in pain and agony and it would require a lot of his skill to save them. Motioning for his men to cast with him, they had cast the counter for that curse which helped save the Auror's lives. As was the standard procedure, as soon as they were done countering the curse, half of his mystics got on the task of moving the unconscious Aurors away from the battle. Harsh waved his wand in an arc as the mystic symbol erupted out of it before Abbadon.

The features of the old necromancer's face twisted into a feral snarl, "Harsh my friend", drawled the mage, "What a pleasant surprise. I find it refreshing that you found the courage to come out and face me after 100 years."

Harsh chuckled, "Your memory has been failing you, Abbadon. Last time we met, you ran like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs. Have you also forgotten how you got that scar on your arm? It was my parting gift to you."

Out of habit, Abbadon rubbed the old scar, "How can I forget it? I have waited for the perfect opportunity to even the score with you. Here I will slay you and my heir, Voldemort will kill your champion in Wizarding Britain."

Harsh chuckled, "Your pupil can't find his way out of a paper bag. The fool made horcruxes to escape death! If I knew their position, I would have destroyed them years ago."

Abbadon mentally face-palmed himself. Why did he never explore the possibility that Tom's secret might have been known to the mystics? They were sure to know everything that happened in the wizarding world. Even if they didn't then Varah Mihir could tell them. If he escaped today, he promised to find Voldemort and slap the daylights out of him for being such a fool.

Harsh was saying, "You do realise that this is our final duel, Abbadon? You almost destroyed our Order despite us making you an equal. Blood of those mystics lies on your hands who fell by your hand. Today they will be avenged."

Without saying a word, Abbadon sent a yellow coloured curse at Harsh who flicked it aside. The captain who was watching the duel crawled behind a big oak tree so that he would be protected from the spells which were flying freely around. He was also fascinated by these individuals. Once when he was on deputation to the ICW for training, he had heard the name Abbadon. He had not been able to find out anything more about it except that he was some sort of necromancer mage and that he was sort of master of every Dark Lord in last few centuries. One of the men at ICW had also spoken about mystics as some sort of secret order which still had an army. He had dismissed those as rumours but now he was forced to reconsider his opinions. If the things he heard were true then these two were magical juggernauts and he was an ordinary mortal caught between them. They wouldn't care if they somehow trampled him under their feet. Yet he was fascinated for the spells were being cast inaudibly and neither of them were using shields at all.

Abbadon, who had seen his first spell go to waste, sent a bolt of fire at Harsh immediately followed by a fire whip but Harsh merely slashed his wand upwards cutting the whip into two. He was yet to cast but allowed Abbadon to use as much of his energy as he could. When he was tired, it would be easier to take him down. Unknown to Abbadon, the group of mystics had already removed the Aurors from the scene of battle except for the captain. He was still conscious and they didn't want him to be aware of their presence. As they secured everyone, the other half of their group was laying down wards in a radius of 1 kilometre around them. This way Abbadon wouldn't be able to escape. He had never learnt to go beyond anti apparition wards.

Abbadon sent a wave of fire at Harsh who conjured a humongous wave of water to douse it off. As he was done doing that, Abbadon sent a barrage of lightning bolts at him at which he simply disapparated to appear at a different place than where he had been. At times, he would even take cover behind a tree and the tree would take the brunt of the spell. A rather nasty spell felled one of the tall slender trees, which was falling on Harsh who banished it towards Abbadon. Abbadon, thrusting his wand forward, created a giant shredder which shredded the tall tree to chips of wood in moments and he escaped most dangerous attacks.

After he had escaped the tree attack, he waved his wand in a wide arc, collecting all the shredded pieces in a tall spire of wood which was animated to attack Harsh. As it rushed at Harsh, he flew to the top of it and cast the drilling spell. The drilling spell destroyed the spire in a matter of moments.

Abbadon, in his frustration, cried in parsel tongue and the earth rose to capture Harsh in a cage. The mystic flew out of its grasp and taunted him, "Old tricks, Abbadon."

Abbadon started hurling projectiles at him who flew around them while he kept taunting him. Finally, Abbadon shot his wand up in the sky and shouted an incantation. This incantation allowed one to summon lightning at any chosen target. It was a heavy spell and required years of practice to be fluent in it.

He summoned and guided tendrils of lightning at Harsh, attacking him. Harsh quickly realised that flying around while it rained lightning, was not a good idea. Besides when lightning struck a tree, it could keep burning for days and may start a forest fire. Instead, he landed on the ground and started firing fire- bolts at Abbadon while dodging the lightning which still struck.

Abbadon abandoned summoning more lightning but started firing spells in return of every spell which Harsh sent at him. Most of the time, their spells clashed mid-air causing fiery explosions disturbing the birds in the trees nearby. That part of the forest was lit up like day with all the light and the explosions. The other mystics guarded the perimeters of the wards they had set up and stopped anyone from approaching that area for they knew how harmful it could be for them.

Abbadon could see that they were reaching a stale-mate and he tried the underhand trick that he had done in Romania. He cast the dark mist all around making things go black so that he could get around and behind Harsh but Harsh whose senses were alert now, had his wand at the ready. He incanted loudly, "Pitradev Sanrakshanam".

A huge majestic Gir lion burst forth out of his wand, strutting around and dispelling the darkness. Before Abbadon could try anything else, he found himself surrounded by high walls with a dome. The walls were shrinking every minute trying to trap him within. He started to panic a little before he realised it was a transfiguration and not done using parsel tongue. He dug a tunnel out of his jail before the walls could close on him. However as he emerged, he met with a powerful flippendo hex which made him tumble a few times before he came to a stop. He was enraged that Harsh used such a pedestrian spell on him but then that was Harsh's style. He often used the most benign spells on people to TEST their alertness.

As he was getting his bearings, he was hit with another flippendo hex which flipped him once before he landed on his feet and conjured a shield to stop the next stunning spell. However as he did this, Harsh had ran at him and kicked him in the crotch making him howl in pain and anger at Harsh for doing something so underhanded. Harsh however, was undeterred and landed punches upon Abbadon who reluctantly pulled out the dagger that he kept sheathed on a cord under his cloak. Harsh had anticipated this as he drew the dagger hidden up his arm.

They started circling each other looking for an opening when Abbadon felt the earth move around his feet and cursed loudly. Harsh was moving the earth beneath his feet and trying to trap him. He flew into the air shooting a spell at Harsh who jumped aside to save himself from it. The spell hit the earth and upended almost 10 feet of soil. Before Harsh made his next move, he had shot another spell and the soil rose into the air to take the shape of a gargoyle which proceeded to attack Harsh trying to beat him into a pulp. Abbadon meanwhile had summoned another blast of lightning guiding it at Harsh who at the last moment, moved from his position making the gargoyle take the brunt of the attack.

As Abbadon attacked him again, he kept sidestepping while he incanted an incantation and the phantom chains appeared around Abbadon trying to tie him down. Abbadon however knew the secret to them and the counter curse to it. He countered the curse before it could hit him however he was beginning to feel the toll of the battle on his body. Harsh had forced him to do some extremely complicated magic sapping him of his strength. Harsh too had done some very complicated spells and felt the drain on his magic and slightly swayed on his legs. In their previous duels, this often ended in stalemate between them but this time, Harsh was prepared for it.

He sent a few lightning bolts at Abbadon who could not move in time and had to use a mage shield to save himself. This onslaught continued for a few more minutes before Abbadon knew he was done. Harsh too had spent a lot of his strength but he had an ace up his sleeve which Abbadon didn't.

As he ended the barrage of lightning spells, two of his mystics charged at Abbadon keeping him busy with casting spells and making him spend some more of his energy. These mystics knew they could not slay him but they were only sapping his strength and giving some time to Harsh.

Harsh was incanting an old mantra which he had devised centuries ago and had only used it once in his life. This was a kinder version of the parasite spell. It magnified his strength many-fold. The more followers he had, the more energy he would have. This spell had been devised in answer to the parasite spell and he had only used it in their previous encounter when Abbadon had used the Parasite spell. It increased his power in proportion to the number of followers that he had but did not sap them of strength or kill them. It was developed on the lines of the magic shared by Lords and their vassals.

As he finished his incantation, he could feel a significant portion of his strength returning. With a nod from him, his men retreated themselves to a distance while he engaged Abbadon who was now desperately looking for a way to get out of this situation. He could use the parasite spell but that was not feasible. Besides he had promised Voldemort that he will not use the spell for he gave everything to Voldemort in their last meeting.

"Abbadon, this is your end", said Harsh before he started making some very complicated motions with his wand. Abbadon was mesmerised with what Harsh was doing and could do nothing but be in awe of it for he had heard of it but never saw anyone doing it. As Harsh finished making those motions, he jabbed his wand towards Abbadon and a silvery cloud floated towards Abbadon ensconcing him in an envelope of silvery fog. What happened next was painful but Abbadon didn't cry out. Wherever the fog touched his body, that portion of his body vanished out of existence. First it was his legs followed by his torso starting with his shoulders gradually going towards his head. When the fog cleared, no trace of Abbadon was left!

Harsh sheathed his wand, bowed his head and said a small prayer, murmuring at the end, "Return to the folds of mother magic, Abbadon. May she fairly judge you for the crimes committed by you and your souls find a purpose again someday!"

Instructing his men to do the clean up, he turned to the Auror captain, "I will appreciate it if you will keep it a secret, child."

The Auror captain was feeling strong enough to sit on his knees before the ancient mage, prostrated himself and said, "Who are you, master? You have done a deed which a few can do yet you seek no recognition for this feat."

Harsh smiled, "Your time is coming soon. Your every question will be answered with time. For now, know that we are mystics and we are not spoken about in public. We generally obliviate people's memories about our existence but we have been following you and you show the potential to be a part of this order so it was thought prudent that you keep your memories of this duel. We will offer this choice to you however know that to become one of us, you will have to forget your identity, let go of all bonds and devote yourself entirely to mother magic. Farewell, child."

The Auror captain knew what his answer will be. He had no family, no bond and no ties. He wanted to serve mother magic like her favourite son.

**The ministry of magic**

Moody had deposited Dung in one of his safe-houses before he returned to the ministry. He would bring in Dung but not until after he had recuperated a little for Moody had elaborate torture planned for him.

When he returned to the torture chamber, the German was still there. Moody ferally grinned, "Are you ready to give answers now?"

The death eater knew he would speak. His fate was sealed either way and to die a painful death was foolish. After all, Voldemort hadn't done anything that would make him loyal to the dark lord. Gasping for breath, his missing teeth slurring his speech, he said, "I will anther your quethions. (I will answer your questons.)"

Moody smirked, "And you were saying you won't break down. Tell me about the German who led the battle of Hogsmeade."

"Hith name ith Emmeth Wagner. He ith the capthain of all the Germanth who were thent by the guild to help Voldemorth in his war. He hath orchethrated the athack on Hogthmeath buth the thuthenth foiled hith planth. He thithn'th ethpeth them to be able tho fith anth then the tho boyth changth everything when they enthered intho the fray.(His name is Emmett Wagner. He is the captain of all of the Germans who were sent by the guild to help Voldemort in his war. He had orchestrated the attack on Hogsmeade but the students foiled his plans. He didn't expect them to be able to fight and then the two boys changed everything when they entered into the fray.)"

Moody put his wand to the captive's temple, "Give me a memory of this Wagner. I will personally find him and kill him. He has to answer for the death of my boys."

With that done, he asked the second question, "Why is the dark mark not on your arm?"

"The guilth agreeth tho help Volthemorth buth we are noth hith thervanth or chathelth. The only conthithion of our thupporth wath thath we will noth be brantheth by him. (The guild agreed to help Voldemort but we are not his servants or chattels. The only condition of our support was that we will not be branded by him.)"

Moody nodded, "And what is this Wagner doing now?"

"The thark Lorth inthuctheth him intho hith inner thircle. He thith there anth givth counthel. He ith altho rethponthible for thraining the thark lorth fortheth. (The Dark Lord inducted him in his inner circle. He sits there and gives counsel. He is also responsible for training the Dark lord's forces.)"

Moody made a mental note that removing front teeth made it difficult to understand when a prisoner decides to talk. From now on, he would stick to removing back teeth. He nodded, "Now how did you come to Azkaban so quickly?"

"The thark Lorth hath platheth a forthe of abouth fifthy theath eatherth on a ship. The ship was bethween the Shoreline anth the ilanth keeping an eye on where the entranthe uthe tho be. He knew thath you woulth come and we were tho athack and thethroy any vethel thailing thowarth the Ilanth. You thlippeth path uth anth goth on the Ilanth. We wenth tho invethigath the lithning which we thaw on the Ilanth. Ith wath then we realith you hath thaken another entranth of whith no one knew. (The Dark Lord had placed a force of about 50 death eaters on a ship. The ship was between the Shoreline and the island keeping an eye on where the entrance used to be. He knew that you would come and we were to attack and destroy any vessel sailing towards the Island. You slipped past us and got on the Island. We went to investigate the lightning which we saw on the Island. It was then we realised you had taken another entrance of which no one knew about.)"

Moody was thankful that Sirius Black had led them through that secret tunnel that day or it could have been a very bloody battle in the North Sea where they all might have ended up dead or would have returned without being of any use.

* * *

**A/N- we are coming to the close and trust me, it makes me feel elated and sad at the same time. Together until the end...**


	26. Chapter 26

**Mystic Mayhem**

The last few days were pure chaos and destruction. The death eaters continued with their tactic of popping up, creating as much chaos as they could and vanishing again. But, something had changed recently.

A group of 3 death eaters who were emboldened from the success of their recent attacks on the muggles had decided to attack outside a muggle restaurant where people were gathered in large numbers. They knew the muggles would be confused, scared and terrified if suddenly people started dropping dead. It would be easy for them to slip away after having killed a handful of them.

One of them pulled out his wand and sent a killing curse into the crowd, sure of having a muggle death to his credit in the next second. Imagine his surprise when a table from the patio leapt into harm's way. The hapless piece of furniture exploded into slivers and dust as the rushing emerald curse struck it.

There was a moment of stunned silence while the diners and death eaters alike took in what had just happened. The settling dust and debris from the explosion settled to reveal a man, dressed in muggle attire, holding a wand, pointed in the general direction of the trouble makers.

The man spoke with an accent and fury in his tone, "I grant you a moment to clear away before I put you all down like the rabid dogs you are."

One of the death eaters who was at the edge of the man's vision tried to take advantage of the situation. As he levelled his wand, a dark cutter took his arm off above the elbow. As the limb fell to the asphalt, still clutching the wand, he sat down hard, trying to stop the bleeding.

While the remaining two death eaters looked on, another man stepped out of the crowd of the muggles holding a wand leveled at them.

The first man growled at the second, "we were told that we can't kill them, idiot."

The second one said indifferently, "He will most likely live. And I got excited. What do you reckon we should do with them?"

By now, the death eaters had managed to get over their initial surprise. They raised their wands to attack the two wizards. The first one didn't even twitch a muscle but a magenta coloured curse left his wand hitting the one of the two remaining death eaters. The second death eater managed to fire off a curse. With a flick of the wrist, the second wizard in muggle attire caught the curse on his wand and flicked it back as a bludgeoner. The impact to the death eater's face crushed his nose and rocked him back. The effect of the magenta spell wasn't immediately apparent, but in the next few moments, it was clear that the death eater could not move. A few moments later, he collapsed to the ground as every muscle in his body spasmed out of control. Compared to this, even the Cruciatus curse of the Dark Lord was nothing.

The one death eater who was still standing as his ruin of a nose began to bleed, futilely cast every curse he knew at his plain-clothed adversary. His reward was to have every one of his curses flicked back at him as a bludgeoner. His adversary was playing with him. His entire body was one continuous bruise. When the wizard grew bored with the one-sided battle, he converted the last curse to a Flippendo. The death eater tumbled end over end and landed in a heap against the front window of the restaurant. Meanwhile, there were another two plain-clothes wizards, working their way through the crowd obliviating the muggles.

"Meru, we should leave", said Himwat.

"But they are still alive", said Meru, "We just started to have fun."

Himwat said sternly, "We were strictly ordered not to kill any of these scum. We are only to protect the muggles. I can overlook one transgression but not another. Let's take them with us and drop them in some uninhabited place after cleaning their memories."

Meru knew he had to follow orders. Taking the three death eaters and the severed arm, they disapparated. The obliviators stayed behind for a while to make sure that no one would remember their encounter with the mystics.

Another time, a death eater had just apparated into a crowd of muggles outside a theatre. He was about to take a shot at the crowd when he felt someone grab his arm. He was startled with the movement. Before he could turn his head or speak, a stunner knocked him senseless.

When he regained consciousness in an alley, A man stood over him that he could only perceive as an outline and the glint of a polished wand against the shadows.

The man growled at him, "Stay away from the muggles or you will die."

The death eater disregarded the warning and fired a bone breaker. The other wizard was so close that there was no way he could miss.

But the other wizard swayed, ever so slightly, and the spell went whizzing into the opposite wall.

Expressing his complete confidence in the outcome, the shadow didn't even bother to disarm the death eater. He just fired what seemed like an endless barrage of bludgeoners. The attack had only lasted about half a minute, but the death eater was nearly senseless again from the pummelling. Every inch of him was bruised, his nose was broken and bleeding and even if he hadn't dropped his wand, he couldn't hit anything with a spell anyway because he was seeing double.

The two images of the shadow-man swam before his blurred vision as the man's menacing voice echoed in his ears, "That is your last warning, Wilhelm. Stay away and you will live. Attack another muggle and you will not. I'll be watching."

Before the death eater could react, the man intoned, "Obliviate.". He had just obliviated the death eater's entire memory of their encounter, leaving only the warning. That warning would echo loudly in his memory if he even thought about attacking a muggle again.

This had been happening all over Britain and Wagner was frustrated. The death eaters were refusing to go on raids for some unknown fear. He even had Lucius crucio them but they still refused to go. He eventually realised that someone was out there who had terrified them. It couldn't be the Aurors or Harold Peverell. The Aurors were already stretched too thin even with the Order of the Phoenix helping them. And it was not possible for Peverell to be in so many places at one time. He eventually decided that sending larger groups for a flash raid would be better. Maybe, it would help him understand more about what exactly was happening.

The bad news wasn't only coming from the death eaters though. The dementors were facing defeat too. Just last week, a few of the dementors had been chased away from Plymouth by patroni so bright that they lit up the cold night. One of the death eaters who by sheer luck just happened to be close enough to witness the incident told them that a group of wizards having no distinct feature from any common muggles had driven away the dementors. They just appeared out of nowhere in the crowd and their patroni started chasing away the fiends. This was also worrying because there weren't a lot of wizards who could cast the patronus spell so perfectly. In fact most of them got exhausted casting it just once. To have a group of just 3 wizards chase away 20 dementors was a marvel indeed. He knew these wizards were not part of the Auror force nor were they common public. A common wizard couldn't cast it with that much power. To his knowledge, no help had arrived for Wizarding Britain from any other countries. This group of wizards hadn't featured in his equation before. For a moment he thought that maybe they were the infamous Order of the Snow Leopard but gave that up quickly. If that were the case, they would have killed the dementors and not merely chased them away. It was imperative for him to know about this new unknown force soon.

The only good thing was that the death eaters were not dying. Wagner knew that by all rights they should have been killed or at least gravely injured. So far, he had seen one severed arm that they had not been able to re-attach because it had been cursed off, lots of bruises and broken noses and a few concussions. It seemed that whoever this unknown force was, they were going out of their way to avoid killing anyone but were brutal in making sure that the death eaters understood that they would be punished if they targeted the muggles.

Perhaps it was time that he met Severus Snape. The man was supposed to be the dark lord's master spy. If he couldn't discover who these people were, then the Dark Lord needed to find a more able spy.

**MY HORCRUXES!**

Once Voldemort was out of the hidden castle, he found a quiet place to sit and meditate where he would not be disturbed for a while. Of all the wizards and witches in Wizarding Britain, there were only a handful that might hope to challenge him in Occlumancy. He took his time to travel his mind-scape, past the insidious defences of the twisted version of the Hogwarts Castle, into the second floor girl's room. With the hisses that meant "Open", he commanded the portal at the second sink. He carefully disarmed the living mouth trap that would have mulched anyone caught unaware, then slid down the chute. There was a crunch and a large puff of dust as his landing crushed the pile of tiny bones at the bottom. The great basilisk came surging through the dust and bones to see what would be its next meal. As it reared to fix Voldemort with its deadly stare, the dark lord hissed out, "Well met King of the Serpents. I have come for my secret."

Averting it's gaze, the great serpent hissed, "Proceed, Speaker. It lies within."

Even as a very young child, Tom had loved snakes. This one was the most wonderous creature he could have ever hoped to encounter. Why not have it guard his most precious secret. Nobody, no matter how talented or brave could ever hope to defeat this guardian. He reached up to give the great serpent a scratch behind its ear-holes as he passed.

Once within the Chamber of Secrets, He addressed the great statue of himself he had put there in place of the statue of Slytherin and hissed, "Show me the chamber within."

The sound of scraping stone echoed about the chamber as the statue split in two to allow him inside.

There, on a very plain, dusty, rickety, old table, lay a scroll of parchment, sealed with the same black-stoned ring he had stolen from his Gaunt grandfather. He drew his wand, which in his mindscape was the wand of his childhood, and carefully intoned the spell that opened the seal. Attempting to open the scroll in any other way would have ended unpleasantly for anyone foolish enough to try it. What he didn't know was that during his battle with Harry at the ministry, Harry had already read this scroll. No matter how the mindscape was laid out, Voldemort knew the list as well as his own name and Harry was able to read the information there.

With the seal broken, the parchment unfurled to reveal a list of his horcruxes and their locations:

_Diary- Given as a reward to Lucius Abraxas Malfoy to be treasured more than his own life_

_Ravenclaw's diadem- Currently in the Room of Hidden Things at the Hogwarts Castle._

_Hufflepuff's cup- Given to Bellatrix Lestrange. Currently in a high security vault at Gringotts Bank._

_Peverell's ring- Currently hidden in the shack which used to be the seat of residence of the House of Gaunt._

_Slytherin's locket - Currently being kept in the middle of an inferi infested lake near the sea._

_Nagini- Currently residing in the forest at the hidden castle._

Voldemort had a double connection with Nagini as both his familiar and his horcrux. He could always feel that she was safe wherever she was. There was no need to check on her.

Hufflepuff's cup was safe in one of the world-famous high safety vaults at Gringotts. Only Bellatrix could access it there… Well, Bella was dead and Voldemort had managed to raid one of the vaults at Gringotts before. Difficult, but not impossible. He would check on that one later.

Slytherin's locket was protected with a diabolical security system which he had devised himself. Anyone attempting to get to it would not survive long enough to regret it and would be trapped there until Voldemort could get there at his own leisure. Anyhow, he had to go there to summon the army of the inferi for the final battle. He would check on it then.

The diary was in the care of Lucius Malfoy and he knew Lucius would have kept it with more care than he would care for his own life. It was a personal gift that the Dark Lord had given and gave to very few of his most trustworthy followers. Lucius would have died rather than give up on it. It would take only moments to loot the man's mind and see if he had been faithful to that command. He would do that when he returned to the hidden castle.

There was not a chance that he could get to the diadem without a massive, bloody battle. Where he had hidden it, looking like a tarnished bit of junk, was quite secure. He would retrieve it after the final battle.

That left only the ring of the Peverells. Dumbledore knew of his connection to the ring and that old shack where the last of the Gaunts lived. If the old fool managed to put two and two together, the ring might be vulnerable. He would check that one first.

When he reached the old shack, he could feel his own magical signature all over the place. The place was infested with snakes who came to pay their respects to him however he had no time for these crawlers. He approached the shack which had become severely dilapidated in the last 50 years. The only reason it hadn't completely returned to the earth were a few simple wards Voldemort had placed there to protect the wood from bugs and moisture. He was satisfied to find the snake still nailed to the door. The snake was the ward stone to every ward that he had set upon the place. He checked the proximity ward, the containment ward, the disabling ward and everything appeared to be intact. Since the wards recognised his magical signature, he didn't need to break them down or deactivate them. He leisurely strolled inside and didn't notice anything amiss until he came to the trip ward which he had set. The ward look like someone had interfered with it. Frowning, he checked it for any other magical signatures but there were none except his own. Very carefully he tripped his own ward confident of the fact that nothing would happen to him.

His confidence was severely misplaced. As the reader may recall, a certain Albus Dumbledore and Aparichit had visited there several months ago and left a nasty surprise for the erstwhile defiler of the summoning stone. As soon as he touched the ward, he was petrified and he felt as if his internal organs began to dissolve and run out onto the floor. He fell to the ground flat on his noseless face and unable to do anything. It felt to his mind that his arms and legs were no longer under his control. They were detached from his body. His spirit seemed to have left his body and he felt nothing but darkness all around him. He had not experienced anything like this since Quirrell had died, ending his possession of that body.

**Oh Fu-dge**

Thanks to his training with the mystics, Harry was considerably more aware of his surroundings than the average teenager. There had been a number of spies, taking it in turns, to track his movements and listen in on conversations when they could. Some of their efforts were so clumsy that Harry often had to suppress the urge to laugh out loud. Of course, he used the Muffliato charm for brief exchanges that might be revealing. He could just imagine the consternation of the spies as random noise cropped up just at the critical moment in conversations. Harry also took great pleasure in leading the spies up and down the staircases in the castle until he was sure they were exhausted and drenched in sweat from the effort. When he really needed to go somewhere without being followed, he would simply turn a corner and disappear as the Mystics taught him, seemingly vanishing without a trace. Others were being followed too. Ron, Hermione, Neville, Susan, Daphne just to name a few. They even tried putting a tail on Luna but her movements seemed to be completely random when she wasn't in class and she seemed to not talk to many people at all and when she did, it was always about a creature or another. People who were talking to her would understand what she meant but the spies could not. In the end, she was removed off the list.

So far, other than consternation from losing their assignments at random times, the spies had not come to any harm. That was no accident. Everyone in The Order of the Snow Leopard was under strict orders to simply note who was following them and report back. No action was to be taken against them other than to make sure that they were not followed to important meetings or overheard talking about Order business. The spies were permitted to go about their business unmolested.

The house elves were quite active, bringing messages to Harry. It seemed that they were eager and honored to carry intelligence from the trio of Dryden, Jugson and Everly to The Great Harry Potter. Mostly, they either left the notes on his bed or carried the messages to him during the practice sessions in The Chamber of Secrets. Between the reports from his order members and those of his inside Slytherin vassals, the same names kept popping up over and over again. Something would have to be done about these spies. They were nothing but death eaters in the making.

The moment that Harry decided that something had to be done, their fate was sealed. He could report them to the Headmaster who could discipline or even expel them for stalking, something that must surely be against school rules if not the law. But most of them were seventh year students. All that would accomplish is to drive them to Tom to get the dark mark a few months early. If he could, he would make sure that they were punished for their acts but did not get into Tom's servitude. There were all kinds of traps he could devise that were anything from hilarious to deadly, but how would doing that make him any better than the people he was trying to neutralize? He entered the Gryffindor common room, face pensive, muttering to himself. As he approached his favourite chair near the fireplace, Fred and George hastily concealed something they had been talking about.

George asked Harry, "Knut for your thoughts, Mate?"

Harry looked up from his musings to see Fred and George both staring at him curiously, "What's that? Oh… I was just trying to decide what to do about our spy problem."

Fred and George looked at each other quizzically, "Spy problem?" Then they looked at Harry and George asked, "You mean that bunch of snakes that've been following you and your mates around?"

Harry asked, "So, you two noticed?"

George chuckled, "Hard to miss. They're not very good at it, are they?"

Fred added, "We just thought they were the latest additions to your fan-club."

Harry grimaced, "That's not funny. They are no fans of mine. I have a list of them and I think it's time we start to actively discourage them." Then he looked at Fred, "What was that you blokes put away just as I was sitting down? I thought we were partners. Since when have we started to keep secrets?"

Fred looked a bit sheepish as he produced the pouch from a pocket of his robes, "This, Harrikins, is Bulbadox powder."

George continued, "Barnaby has been so foolish as to give us some grief recently."

Fred and George grinned, "We were going to make his nights a bit more interesting by putting a pinch or two of this in his pyjamas on random nights."

Harry cringed momentarily, "That's just plain nasty. He'll get boils in places that no one should ever see." Then he grinned back at them, "That gives me an idea."

The twins eyes' gleamed in excitement, "We always knew you were a true marauder. Go on."

The three of them sat in a huddle while they discussed Harry's cunning plan.

The first one to receive his well-deserved reward for his diligent spy work was Robert Macnair, a nephew of the recently killed infamous death eater. He was following Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis as they went from one class to another.

"Hey Trace", said Fred who was coming from his own class. He pulled his girlfriend close to him and embraced her.

"Get a room", Daphne growled at the pair of them.

Tracy smirked, "Good thinking, Daph. I'll catch up with you later at the meeting. Tall, ginger, silly and I are taking a slight detour before we meet up with the others at the secret location."

Daphne nodded, "Alright but take care that you are not followed."

She had said it just loud enough to be sure that the spy overheard them. Macnair was supposed to be following both of them. It only took him a second to decide that following the couple was the most likely way to discover where Scar-Head's people have been meeting. Thinking himself quite clever, he lagged behind the couple, trying to keep to the shadows, keeping a tapestry or one turning of the corridor between himself and his quarry. Every now and then, Fred would pause to give Tracey a peck on the cheek. While he was at it, he carefully checked to make sure that they hadn't lost their tail.

At the end of many twistings and turnings and more than a few flights of stairs, the couple entered a room at the end of a corridor. They closed the door behind them when they entered.

"Could this be it?", Macnair thought as he crept up on the door. He bent low to look through the keyhole before proceeding. Through the keyhole, he could see nothing but an unused classroom. Putting his ear to the door, he didn't hear anything either. He carefully put one hand to the centre of the door to keep it silent and carefully worked the doorknob to keep it from rattling or clicking as he turned the knob.

On the other side of the door, Fred had his back flat against the wall to keep out of sight. Tracey was on the hinged side of the door with her back to the wall and her wand ready. They both suppressed a snicker as they watched the doorknob turning slowly. The moment the door began to open, they were ready.

As Macnair carefully opened the door just a crack to see what waited for him, he was hit, full in the face, with a jet of water. While he was distracted, he failed to notice the powder that went down the back of his neck and into his clothes.

By the time Macnair managed to blink his eyes clear, Fred and Tracey had made themselves scarce. Adrian Pucey stood there with his girlfriend Elia Runcorn, looking affronted, "This room is for couples only. Singles are dealt with in the harshest manner."

The spy left cursing himself. It was just a place where couples met and may be snogged a bit or maybe shared a butterbeer and the like. It didn't feel to him like the kind of place to have spell practice or hold large clandestine meetings. It was a wasted effort. He was wandering in the general direction of the dungeons when the first inkling of the dirty trick that had been played on him began. It started off with a persistent itch in the middle of his back. Of course, when he tried to scratch it, he only succeeded in rubbing the Bulbadox powder deeper into his skin. Anywhere that there was perspiration on him, anywhere he scratched, it just got worse. In a few more minutes, his entire hide began to erupt in boils and pustules as he scratched like a dog with a bad case of flees and dry skin. To make matters worse, he began to feel fever coming on which caused more sweat which caused more itching.

The seventh year was ready to flay himself alive just to get the itching to stop when he decided to get to the infirmary as quickly as he could. It wasn't easy. The boils on his face were beginning to make his eyes swell shut. The itching was driving him mad. As he stumbled through the infirmary doors, Madame Pomfrey looked up from her work to see him stumbling in. It took her about two seconds to diagnose the young man and determine what to do. First, she put him in a total body bind to stop him from tearing his own hide off. Then she forced a draught down his throat. While McNair spluttered and swallowed, she rapidly applied numbing charms to his skin. Satisfied that she had done the best she could, she asked him, "Exactly what made you use Bulbadox powder in place of talcum powder for sweating?"

Even with the best healing potions she had, this case would take at least three days before he could be seen in public again.

Another spy was following Neville after curfew. Neville had snuck out to go and meet his girl friend. The spy had heard him talking to Hannah earlier that he would sneak out in the night to meet her and they had plans to spend some quality time in the place that only they knew about. What Neville had in mind was the Mermaid's Sanctuary but the spy didn't know that.

Also earlier that day, Neville was moving between classes when he was pelted with a piece of chalk. It was not a very big piece but it stung. Neville turned around to find the culprit and was immediately assaulted with a barrage of chalk pieces courtesy of Peeves who was using an old pipe as a blow-gun and hurling projectiles at him.

Neville roared in anger, "Peeves, you'll pay for that!"

The poltergeist did a somersault in mid-air, blew a raspberry and continued the assault. Neville whipped out his wand and shot a spell at the poltergeist muttering the spell under his breath. The chalk pieces rose into the air and shot at Peeves from every direction. The poltergeist cried out in anguish and soared away, swearing revenge on Longbottom.

When the spy found Neville in the night, he didn't notice that Peeves had also been waiting for Neville. Neville knew that they were following him and that Peeves was looking for a chance to get even. He let them follow him to some distance when Peeves became aware of the spy's presence. Neville had applied a disillusionment charm to himself as he turned the corner and walked in the shadows so he wasn't going to be seen but the spy was flummoxed. This happened a lot with them. They would be following Potter or Longbottom and poof! They would suddenly vanish into nothing. The spy was deciding if he should return to the Slytherin Common Room when he heard the poltergeist cackling overhead, "Oh dear! You boy look so much in trouble!"

The poltergeist started chasing him through the corridors, pelting him with chalk pieces until he ran into a suit of armour headlong and knocked himself senseless. The resounding crash echoed through the halls attracting the attention of the caretaker, Filch.

"O dear!", the old man exclaimed while rubbing his hands together, "A student wandering the halls after curfew. And damaging a valuable suit of armour no less." As he roughly yanked the stunned student to his feet, he said, "I'll have you polishing the floors for a week for all the trouble you caused."

Another time, one Letticus Avery, a cousin twice removed of the infamous Azkaban inmate, had been following Harry who was several paces ahead of him. The one trailing him saw harry descending a staircase but when he arrived at the bottom, he found that Potter had already vanished. He turned back to return to his dorm when he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. A low blood curdling growl was coming from one of the two rooms down the corridor. He pulled out his wand and foolishly followed the growl to see where it was coming from. This corridor had a couple of rooms which were left unused so there was nothing but dust and grime in them except may be a few very old portraits. Generally the doors were locked but there was one open and that seemed to be where the sound was coming from. There was no light or anything to let him see what was in the room.

Then he saw, about shoulder height, two dimly glowing orbs just a few feet away. While something at the back of his mind said, "Cat. Really big cat! RUN‼!" There was another part of his mind that said, "Cat's don't come that big. Stand still. Maybe it hasn't seen you."

While his mind jabbered at him and he stood paralyzed, the cat that was too big to believe lunged forward. With one leap, the Snow Leopard landed with his forepaws outstretched to the hapless spy's shoulders, knocking him down and pinning him to the ground. Whether it was the impact of the massive paws or the consequence of being knocked to the ground with such force, it didn't matter. The boy had the wind knocked out of him and he wasn't able to draw breath to scream or to beg for his life. But he was rapidly soiling himself. The beast, however, drew a deep breath and with its massive jaws barely inches from the lad's face, roared with all his might.

The next thing the would be spy knew, Professor McGonagall was shaking him awake. Her lips were as thin and straight as the finest ruler. Her face was pale with rage in the dim light cast by her wand, "Mr. Avery, breaking curfew and out of bounds. Explain yourself."

Avery stuttered, "C-c-cat. Re-re-really b-b-big c-c-cat, Professor"

It seemed impossible, but Professor McGonagall's lips grew even thinner, "Mrs. Norris is not that big. You are delusional, Mr. Avery. Report to Madame Pomfrey at once. 50 points from Slytherin and report to my office to start your week's detention at 7:00 tomorrow evening. Perhaps that will help you to remember what parts of the school are out of bounds to students."

The rest of the members of the spy ring had similar mishaps. The one that was tailing Fay Dunbar was loitering outside the girl's bathroom when she went in there to get away from him. Tracking her was creepy but this had crossed the line. When she popped the door open to find him still there, she hit him with a Scalping Hex that instantly removed all his hair. Professor Snape just happened to be walking down the corridor at exactly the right time to see one of his precious Slytherins losing his hair.

He sneered in his typical fashion as he drawled, "Really Miss Dunbar? That'll be 50 points for using magic in the halls to attack another student."

Dean Thomas, the heir of Sayre had been there long enough to know how Fay had been provoked. What's more, he had been learning about certain privileges that an heir can exercise. He intervened on Fay's behalf, "Respectfully, Professor Snape, I believe that there is more to this story. We all know that it is against the rules to use magic in the halls between classes, but do you know how Miss Dunbar was provoked?"

Without waiting for the Dungeon Bat to ask her, Fay volunteered, "That boy has been stalking me. He even had the nerve to loiter outside the girl's room while I was using the facilities. I feel threatened and I just wanted him to go away."

Dean nodded his head affirmatively, "There you have it, Professor. That kind of behaviour is not only creepy but illegal. I insist that you discipline this member of your house, or I shall have to bring it to the attention of my liege Lord, Harold Peverell."

Snape sneered at Dean and drawled, "I ought to place you in detention for your impertinence, but, since you have amused me, I spare you". He then turned to the offender, "That'll be 50 points and two weeks detention for stalking, young man. You will be pickling slugs and cleaning bed-pans for the next two weeks. Protective gear will not be required."

Snape had only needed an excuse to punish the spy. He had more reason to hate the death eaters than most. Perhaps some none too gentle correction would help this boy not to become one.

**The Tale of Grawp**

One morning, Harry was on the parapets with Seamus, practicing with the catapults. They had been inactive all winter long but were getting a good work-out now. This morning, only Harry and Seamus were there so that Harry could test how long it took to adjust them to fire in any direction. Being made of Goblin silver, the winter conditions and the constant working which would have destroyed any other material only made the weapons stronger.

Seamus had been picking targets at random. Suddenly, he whooped for joy. Harry knew of very few things that would make Seamus react like that. He quickly followed the other youth's line of sight to see what had attracted his attention. He asked, "Mate, is everything alright?"

Seamus excitedly said, "Harry, there's a giant in the forest!"

Harry was shocked, "A giant? Seamus, idiot, if there's a giant in the forest it's a cause for concern, not joy."

Seamus who was still looking towards the forest was frowning, "But this one seems to be tied with ropes or something and he is very small. You had told us that Giants are generally 25 feet tall but this one looks to be under 20. And look there's Hagrid and the centaurs. Blimey! They look angry."

Harry too had seen what was happening. He quickly decided to intervene but before he did, he thought to bring Dumbledore with him. The Headmaster was one of the few people who could reason with the centaurs and if they were angry with Hagrid, Dumbledore was likely the only person that could avoid bloodshed. Quick as the thought itself, Harry was on his broom, flying down from the ramparts. As he picked up speed, he yelled over his shoulder, "If the giant starts attacking everyone, take him out. But until then, hold your fire."

As soon as he landed, he disappeared to appear in Dumbledore's office, who was startled, "My boy! Don't ever do this to me."

Harry quickly told him, "Headmaster, there is a giant in the forest. It appears to be tied up and there's some kind of confrontation going on between Hagrid and the centaurs. I came to get you to stop it before someone gets hurt."

Without a single word, he whistled for Fawkes. The phoenix swooped in. With one hand, he took Harry's sleeve, with the other, he grabbed Fawkes' tail-feathers and they were gone.

They reappeared in the clearing where the confrontation was taking place. Hagrid stood between the centaurs and the giant. They were all angry and shouting. It looked like Hagrid was about to take them all on.

Dumbledore addressed the half-giant, "Hagrid, calm down. Tell me what is going on here?"

"Professor, they're trying to tell me that Grawpy can't stay here. They think they own this forest and get to decide who stays and who goes. He's mostly harmless, but they don't want 'im 'round 'ere."

Harry snorted mentally. For Hagrid to admit that a creature was "mostly" harmless must mean that it is hugely destructive but hasn't killed anyone… yet. For Hagrid to befriend insanely dangerous monsters was not unusual. A murderous gigantic spider and a fire-breathing dragon being two examples of Harry's acquaintance. Still, Harry had to wonder why he seemed particularly protective of this one.

Dumbledore talked to the leader of the centaurs, "Bane, I understand that he has made a bit of a mess here, but he is docile most of the time. Has he harmed any of your people?"

The centaur snorted, "Docile?" He gestured to the splintered trees, exposed root bowls and other mayhem around him, "A bit of a mess?" He turned to Dumbledore, "We are the guardians of this forest. That is part of your treaty with us. This creature," he pointed at the giant that was nearly twice the height of Hagrid, "has destroyed everything he can reach, displacing or killing countless forest creatures. If he is allowed to continue there will be nothing but a ruined plane where this forest once stood. The only reason he hasn't killed us all is that we stay out of reach and we can outrun him. He can't stay here."

Dumbledore said with a little steel in his voice, "The forbidden forest belongs to every magical creature, Bane. You never complained about the acromantula colony in this forest and they are just as deadly. What makes him any different from any of the other magical creatures that share your home?"

Bane shook his head vehemently, "He is a giant! No other creature in this forest has ever caused so much destruction. Besides, when You-Know-Who attacks with his giants, what is to stop this one from joining them?"

Grop was never going to be the brightest creature in the forest, but he understood enough of what Bane had said to be offended. He shook his mighty fist and roared, "Ki Vody!"

Hagrid looked up at the stout rope, hanging from Grawp's arm snapped as if it were no more than a strand of thread and said, "Now ya've gone an' hurt 'is feelins. "E'd no sooner join You-Know-Who than Dumbledore would." At this, Grawp seemed to look pleased with himself. His boulder-like head split into a gruesome grin that showed teeth the size of bricks.

Dumbledore nodded with grim satisfaction, "There you have it. When the time comes, he'll fight alright, but for the light. You may not banish him. He's one of us. If it makes you feel any better, I'll have Hagrid relocate him to that cave, up the side of the mountain at the edge of the forest. He shouldn't bother you there." Bane reluctantly nodded and the centaur herd retreated.

Dumbledore turned to Hagrid, "You know the place, Hagrid. There are lots of trees and a natural spring. He should have all that he needs there. Besides, if he's a good example of his race, he'll be able to work the stone and make the cave even better, making himself right at home there."

Grawp gazed off at the nearby mountain and uttered, "Ho."

Hagrid began to look more like himself. His easy smile returned to his bruised visage, "I think 'E likes the idear. I'll get 'im set up there." With that, Hagrid went to work starting to untie the ropes that were supposed to keep Grop from wandering off.

Dumbledore whistled for Fawkes and took hold of Harry's arm again. The next moment, he reached up as the phoenix came swooping in. In a flash of flame, Harry found himself with the Headmaster in the Headmaster's office. As Dumbledore made his way around his desk to his own chair, he offered, "Won't you have a seat, Harry? I imagine that you may have a question or two for me."

Harry nodded, "What was that all about? Who is the giant? Where did he come from? Why is Hagrid so protective of him?"

The corners of Dumbledore's beard twitched upwards, "That should about cover it, my boy. Very well, I shall answer." He leaned back in his chinrz chair and steepled his fingers together, "First, what was that about. Hagrid brought that giant to the Forbidden forest. The centaurs were against it from the start. As the giant broke loose more than once and the swath of destruction spread, they became more insistent about it. You saw the rest."

Harry nodded, "Please do continue."

Dumbledore sat up a bit straighter, "I'll answer your third question next. He came from the Ural Mountains in Russia. There was a world-wide council more than five decades ago. We, the ICW, banished the remaining giants in a reserve there because they were proving too dangerous for the wizarding world and our clashes only resulted in loss, death and destruction. We had hoped that far away from the civilization of men and wizards, that they would be content there. Sadly, giants don't get along well even with their own kind. Their numbers have been dwindling ever since they were placed there. Too many giants in too small a range."

Something deep inside of Harry railed at this. It was the same story, the same plight for the centaurs. Someone, not of their people, decided for them that their range should be restricted. They were handed a raw deal in which they had no say and were expected to be content with it. Harry shook his head, "That's not right. I don't care if they're practically brainless brutes. They're still intelligent creatures. Don't they have as much right to live as any of us?".

Dumbledore nodded firmly, "Harry, your feelings do you credit. I would love to debate with you about half-century-old decisions, but not at this time."

Harry was about to snap back, but he realized that Dumbledore was looking tired. If he were to get his answers tonight, he'd best show some respect, "Of course, Headmaster. Please continue."

Twinkles appeared in the bright-blue eyes above the half-moon spectacles, "The answers to your second and fourth questions are, in fact, one answer. This was not my story to tell, but Hagrid asked me to tell you when I felt that the time was right. That time has come. Grawp is Hagrid's half-brother."

Harry startled, "Brother? Hagrid never said anything about…"

Dumbledore nodded slowly, "Until last summer, he didn't know himself. Once I knew that Tom was back, I reconvened The Order of the Phoenix. I gave them all some very important assignments to prepare us for what must certainly come. Hagrid was sent to the giants. His task was to recruit as many of them as he could in the hopes that he could at least persuade them not to fight on the side of Dark again. While there, he discovered that his mother, Fridwulfa who had left his father had lived on the reserve with the other giants. Giants do not mate for life. She found another mate there and she had died in one of the giant skirmishes not too long ago, leaving a son behind, not quite yet fully grown. He was an outcast among his own people and treated terribly because he was so small."

"Small?", Harry thought, "Yes, small for one of his race."

Dumbledore continued, "Now, Hagrid's orders were to recruit and bring back all the giants he could. Sadly, his mission failed. But when he left the giant camp for the last time, he brought Grawp back with him. It took a lot of persuading, but eventually Hagrid succeeded. It hasn't been easy for Grawp at any time. He's still growing, he's hungry all the time and he keeps getting homesick. Every now and then, he tries to break loose and head back to the Urals. But there's nothing for him there because although Hagrid failed in his mission, the death eaters did not. If he goes back there, his own people will kill him. I hope that he will do better in the cave. It's more like the place where he used to live."

Harry took in everything that Dumbledore was saying and nodded, "I am indeed thankful that Seamus just didn't shoot him down when we saw him. I can't even think what Hagrid would have done to us if we did that. But Professor, won't he be in the way when Voldemort's giants attack?"

Dumbledore smiled, "No, you saw the way he reacted when the centaurs mentioned Tom. We will put him near the lake in garb to set him apart from the other giants. Just he alone would be able to stop any attack from the water."

Harry grinned, "The death eaters won't know what hit them."

**Badgers Vs. Serpents**

In the last 4 days, the tension in the castle had mounted. No, it wasn't about the death eaters or anything like that. The death eaters were being handed their collective butts outside. This was about the serious business of Quidditch. In the castle, the time had arrived for the Slytherin versus Hufflepuff match. Easter holidays were looming too. The Slytherin team had been practicing diligently and hoped to scoop a victory against the badgers at least. The first match of the season had seen their seeker, Malfoy, completely outclassed by Harry in every conceivable way. Now things were different. Malfoy was now a chaser. Harper had become the new seeker. Harper was by no means in the same league as Malfoy but the team had been desperate for a decent chaser with their previous chaser having been expelled. Today was the day of the match and it was time to see if the snakes would get some respect or they would have to return empty handed.

For Hufflepuff, this was the last chance too. They had a solid team which performed splendidly but they had lost the last match due to their seeker. He was not as talented as Cho Chang. She had outplayed him. Today's match was the only one where they stood to win because the next match would see them pitted against Gryffindor. They knew that they stood no chance to win against Gryffindor. The lions were the best team at the moment with the twins being the beaters. It was often said they were like human Bludgers themselves. With them on the team, it was more like having to dodge four Bludgers all the time. Then there were the three chasers who were on the team ever since their second year. Oliver Wood had forged them into a formidable war machine. Their seeker, well, who could beat a legend? The one and only time he ever missed a Snitch was when he passed out because dementors had taken the field and he passed out from the exposure. Nobody that had seen him in action since the school year started could even think that would ever happen again. No one could actually beat Harry Potter in a fair game. The only person on the team that might even be considered a weak link was the Keeper. Ron was unstoppable when he was on form, but everyone knew that he had a confidence problem. If he got rattled, he couldn't stop anything. Still, that didn't matter much when the seeker could end the game any time he liked. Harry had pulled some very impressive feats on the quidditch field and the only feat that remained for him was to fly without a broom and catch the snitch. (Of course, everyone knows that's impossible… or is it?) The real driving force behind the team was their new captain. Being appointed in her Seventh year, Angelina knew that she had one and only one chance to show the difference her leadership can make. She had a mean streak a mile wide. Everyone knew better than to mess with her. When she had try-outs, she had picked a reserve team too. They didn't just sit around. They mixed and matched with the starting team. When the other teams had looked in on their practices, they were amazed to find out that the alternates were every bit as talented as the first team.

One of them, Ginevra Weasley, was from the red-head clan. She was equally at home playing Chaser or Seeker. She was very impressive when she flew that Nimbus 2001. Then there was Demelza Robins. Others hadn't seen her play much but she was good. She could be a great chaser in case she had to fill in for any of the three regulars even if she wasn't up to their mark. Then there were Fay and Jack Sloper. Jack appeared to be a thin, chit of a lad but he would hit the Bludger so hard that it would soar away as fast as it had come. Fay was a very mean Beater who hit the bludgers with such force that her victims sometimes even sported bruised ribs. In other words, the Gryffindor team was invincible at the moment and no one hoped to defeat them. The rest of the teams would have to settle for a race for second place.

This morning, Harry met Susan who gave him a Hufflepuff flag and said sweetly, "I hope you know who you are supporting sweetie."

He replied with equal sweetness, "Of course dear. I am rooting for the badgers today so I won't feel bad when they lose to me next match."

This time, when Harry looked over the stands, he was mildly surprised to see equal numbers of the two team's colours distributed through the crowd. Very much unlike years past where there was a definite concentration of the Snakes' colours in exactly one-quarter section of the stadium and everybody else supporting the other team, whoever it may be, this time, he was pleased to see them mixing and supporting both teams equally. A tear came to his eye as he realized that there just might be a better future for the Wizarding World after-all. It just might have something to do with Conrad being on the team or Margaret Thickett making the cut as a beater or the Order of the Snow Leopard. Whatever the cause, it was clear that Slytherin had more supporters than just the silver and green clad students.

Harry sat in the Gryffindor stands with his friends. Even there, supporters for both teams were divided among the two houses. The quidditch team however was still rooting for the badgers. Some things were slower to change no matter what you do.

Lee Jordon was on the mike, "Welcome to the third match of the Quidditch house competition. Today's match is Hufflepuff versus Slytherin. Due to certain unfortunate events earlier in the term, The Slytherins had to replace three members of their team. According to the program, their Seeker, Draco Malfoy has also moved over to become a Chaser. This is practically a new team. I just hope that their captain, Montague has managed to put together one formidable team. Everybody give a big hiss for the Serpents!"

"Jordon!", snapped Professor McGonagall. Some of the crowd got into the spirit of it and hissed for the Slytherin team while others cheered, clapped and stomped as loudly as they could to drown them out.

Madam Hooch was standing at centre field with the crate of balls and her broom at the ready when the Slytherin team came flying from their dressing room in formation. Malfoy, Montague and Pucey in front, Margaret Thickett in the centre with DuVant, Bletchley and Harper taking up the rear.

Lee narrated, "Here they come! Malfoy, Montague , Pucey, Margaret Thickett, DuVant, Bletchley and Harper !"

The crowd roared as the team took a lap in perfect formation, coming to rest next to Madame Hooch.

"Well," Harry thought, "if they spent as much time practicing Quidditch as they've wasted on formation flying, they ought to do alright."

Lee picked up the narrative again, "The Hufflepuffs have been practicing really hard for the last month and they're hungry. They want this. And they're tough. Here they come! Everybody give a mighty growl for the honey badgers of Hogwarts, The Hufflepuffs!"

The crowd went wild as the Hufflepuff team came screaming from the changeroom in arrow formation and slammed to the ground at centre field as if they had been launched from a ballista. This team meant business. In the few seconds that they were in the air, Lee announced their names, "I give you Macmillan, Whitby, McManus, Cadwallader, Summerby, Smith and Rickett. Do your stuff, Hufflepuff."

As the teams dismounted, Madam Hooch started speaking, "I want a fair match out there. No rule breaking and no cheating. And remember that those bats are for Bludgers. If I catch you using them on anything else, a game misconduct will be the best you can hope for. Now mount your brooms!"

With that, she gave two short blasts on the whistle and both teams rose into the air. The moment that everyone was in position, she kicked open the crate, releasing the Bludgers and the Snitch. Once the three balls were airborne, she gave a mighty single blast on her whistle and threw the Quaffle into the air.

Malfoy didn't waste so much as the blink of an eye. With a Seeker's practiced instant calculation, he intercepted the Quaffle and made for the goal posts.

Lee commented, "Malfoy dives for the Quaffle and barely dodges Smith. Montague comes out of nowhere and takes the pass from Malfoy. Flying towards the Hufflepuff Keeper flanked by DuVant and Thickett. Thickett sends back the bludger at the Hufflepuff beater McManus who fails to see it coming and takes one in the ribs. Montague passes the Quaffle to Pucey who is behind him and Pucey throws it cleanly through the left hoop. Its 10-0 for Slytherin."

Each pair of beaters volleyed the Bludgers between them while Madame Hooch retrieved the Quaffle and everyone else got back into position. With a blast of the whistle, she threw out the red ball and the game was on again.

"Madam Hooch retrieves the Quaffle and the game resumes. Malfoy comes up with the Quaffle again! He's heading for the Puff's end and … Ouch! Malfoy takes a Bludger to the ribs! Where are his beaters?"

Harry said to Neville, "the ferret was better off as a Seeker. At least he never got pummeled with Bludgers then."

Neville snorted, "Let's just watch them hand him his butt."

Lee continued, "Pucey flicks the Quaffle towards the Hufflepuff post and a Bludger flies straight at him. Thickett comes out of nowhere and sends the bludger back. What a shot! That Bludger nearly knocked Whitby right off his broom. Pucey takes a rebound shot and McManus saves it. Now it's Smith with the Quaffle flying straight to the Slytherin end. Nice Bludger block from Macmillan, fired it at DuVant. DuVant bats it at Whitby. Whitby smashes it toward Malfoy. Nice Barrel-roll from Malfoy for the dodge. Smith dodges the two beaters, two Bludgers and feints to the right hoop. Bletchley falls for it! Smith goes for centre hoop and its tied at 10-10."

Harry nodded firmly, "Looks like Malfoy is no quitter."

The Hufflepuff crowd went wild when Smith scored. The game got nastier from there.

"It's Malfoy with the Quaffle, flies toward the Hufflepuff hoops and the badgers are trying Parkin's pincer on him closing the trap from three sides. Malfoy passes to Montague. Pass to Pucey. Pass back to Malfoy in the Hufflepuff end. Foul!"

The Slytherin beater DuVant hit a Bludger at McManus when they were in the end zone which is a foul. Here's the whistle."

"Penalty for Hufflepuff taken by Smith. He feints to the centre, shoots right. And Bletchley saves! He didn't fall for that one again. He passes to Montague and it's on again!"

The game had already been going for 30 minutes. It was like watching a pinball machine. The action didn't let up for a second. So far, though, nobody had yet spotted the Snitch. Suddenly Summerby Sped toward the Hufflepuff end laying flat against his broom, urging it to greater speed.

Lee spotted the change, "Looks like Summerby has spotted the Snitch! This could be all over! Harper is hot on his tail! Can he catch up? They're almost nose to tail! Summerby is diving! I still don't see the Snitch. He pulls up and oh! That's gotta hurt! Harper gets ploughed! And there's the whistle."

Montague called a time out while he inspected his seeker for damage. Unknown to anyone else in the school, Dumbledore had taken precautions to make sure that such an incident didn't do any permanent damage some time ago. Harper was a bit shaken up, but he rose to his feet and shook his fist at Summerby while the other seeker laughed uproariously. Madame Hooch declared, "No foul!", over Montague's protests, but when she asked him if he had a back-up chaser handy, he shut up and got back on his broom.

Jordan picked up the commentary, "He's OK everyone!"

The crowd all gave Harper a massive cheer as he flew back up on his broom. Madame Hooch gave the signal and the game resumed.

"It's Malfoy with the Quaffle making his move, flanked by the beaters and wham! That'll leave a mark. Macmillan comes out of nowhere and collides with Malfoy."

There was a double blast on the whistle.

"Here's the call. Penalty shot awarded to Slytherin for cobbing. Looks like Malfoy is going to need a few minutes, so Pucey is going to take the shot. Pucey moving in fast, jigs right… Score‼ Pucey fakes McManus right out of his socks. You can't block a shot to the left when you're over at the right hoop. That's 20 to 10 for Slytherin."

Malfoy gave Pucey a high five. It looked like the new Slytherin team was working.

When the play resumed, Malfoy came up with the Quaffle again. Smith, who hadn't managed to come up with the ball yet tried to knock Malfoy off his broom as he passed.

Jordan couldn't believe his eyes as Madame Hooch blasted the whistle again, "Foul! Penalty shot to Slytherin. Malfoy is going to take the shot this time."

Before he started moving, Malfoy glared straight at Smith and mouthed, "Eat this!"

In a movement that was almost too quick to follow, The Quaffle streaked through the left hoop.

This time, Montague gave Malfoy the high five.

Jordan announced, "Malfoy scores! That was some shot! That's 30 – 10 for Slytherin."

As they flew back to position for the next tip-off, Malfoy said a few words to his beaters. Their eyes went a bit wide at what he said, but they nodded their acknowledgement.

When Madame Hooch threw the ball out, Malfoy appeared to be caught napping and Smith came up with the ball. Malfoy made what looked like a half-hearted attempt to pull around and chase Smith down the pitch.

Lee said, "Smith is flying to the Slytherin end with no one in sight to stop him from scoring and ouch! The beaters just nailed him with a double Bludger defence! It'll be a while before he shakes that one off. Malfoy picks up the Quaffle. Pass to Pucey. Pass to Montague. Back to Malfoy. McManus seems to be all alone out there. Can he save it? Malfoy shoots left. No, that was a faint. McManus buys it and… It's a goal through the centre hoop! That's 40 to 10 for Slytherin. It seems that Malfoy's working really hard to stay in possession of the Quaffle as much as possible. It makes us wonder what our favourite ferret is up to?"

McGonagal growled, "Jordan!"

He continued, "Sorry Professor."

After that, Malfoy scored again. Hufflepuff was having trouble trying to even the score. Smith was their best Chaser and it looked like that double Bludger hit he took earlier had messed him up badly. The Hufflepuff came together as a team and effectively shut down the Slytherin offence while Summerby prowled the skies for any sign of the elusive Snitch. A glint of gold behind Harper caught his eye.

Lee picked up on the change immediately, "Summerby rushes Harper. Has he spotted the Snitch? Harper seems to just be trying to get out of his way. Harper sees it too! The chase is on! The Snitch goes into a dive! Summerby is after it. Did you see that?! Harper pulls a starfish and the stick but he misses the grab! Summerby comes up with the Snitch and it's all over folks! Hufflepuff takes the game 160 to 50! Thanks to a brilliant play by Summerby!"

Summerby held the captured Snitch high, exaulting in his first victory as Seeker. His team-mates swarmed him. The stands emptied and the Hufflepuff supporters lifted the team on their shoulders as they landed.

**Let's See You Duel**

The sessions in the chamber of secrets were going well. The students had learnt how to duel in pairs and they were starting to learn what went into it. It had been hard but now they failed only 4 out of 10 times. There was room for improvement but that would happen gradually. What Harry knew was that the final battle would come way before that.

This evening, he had set them up in pairs. His plan was to test the pairs by approaching them as they stood together. When everyone was assembled, he started addressing them, "Today, I am going to put you to the test. I am going to see how many of you can perform well in pairs. For this purpose, we will have a pair stand in the middle of the chamber while four of you will attack them from all sides. This is strictly a non-lethal duel. Using anything more lethal than a bludgeoning hex will mean that you will cease to be a part of the Order of The Snow Leopard. If any partner of a pair is down then it means that the pair have to step aside to let another pair try their luck. Is that clear?"

As they agreed, he added another condition, "As a rule, I am not going to participate in it, neither will Neville or Susan. The rest of you can form your pairs as you wish."

The students paired off quickly. They had been practicing together for months now and they all knew who they worked best with. Of course, Fred and George didn't even have to move as they were already side-by-side. They went first. Although the twins tended to be silly with their spell choices, they clearly demonstrated how effective two could be against many when they were well coordinated. Every spell was non-verbal, giving the attackers no warning as to what was coming back at them. The two switched roles randomly and frequently without any verbal signals and as fluently as if they had choreographed the fight for months. After about 10 minutes, most of the students were sporting horns, hooves, novel complexions and neon coloured clothing, but the twins were completely untouched. In every instance, they seemed to know whether dodging, shielding or blocking was the best tactic. Harry had not yet shared the trick of catching incoming spells on their wands, but Harry thought they were about ready for it.

Harry called a halt, "That's enough. Now, when I'm talking about teamwork, that's what I mean! Fred, George, you two can step aside for now. When the evening is over, we'll have you face off against the best that come out of this exercise. Daphne, Tracey you two are up next."

The two life-long friends took their place in the middle of the floor and the others attacked them two pairs at a time. The girls stayed back to back, waiting for the attackers to come to them. Each defence was minimal and perfectly timed. Their reposts managed to take out a few attackers with a minimum of effort. Harry realized that using tactics like that, they could hold out for hours against superior numbers without getting exhausted. It worked great until one pair of attackers got smart. One used a flash spell to distract and dazzle Tracey's sight while the other one fired a bludgeoner at her. Tracey misjudged the incoming spell and took one to the gut. With the wind knocked out of her, Harry called in the next pair.

Other pairs followed. A few of them managed to stand for seven to eight minutes before they were defeated. Most were eliminated in five minutes or less. After he had seen everyone, he pitted Daphne and Tracey against Fred and George. It seemed that the first two up were the toughest. The contest wasn't quite as uneven as one might imagine. While Daphne and Tracey had carefully managed their strength, Fred and George had been quite flamboyant in their first match. The girls were able to use shields while Fred and George had to rely on their wits and tried to dodge everything. In the end, George managed to chain a shield breaker and a stunner together to knock Daphne down, but Fred chided him, "That was unsporting, chap."

George retorted, "It was them or us, mate."

Harry had them all line up. He said, "That wasn't bad."

He paused for a moment then continued, "But it wasn't very good either. With the exception of Fred and George here, you're all dead. While none of you did anything really stupid, I think we're all past that, you do need more practice at coordinating your defence to compliment your attacks. Save energy, bide your time, wait for that opening while giving your opponents none. Time is running short. The other side is getting restless. Practice your tactics and coordination every chance you get. Play out battles in your head. Work on ways to overcome difficult situations. Make sure your head is in the game every time you pick up your wands. Voldemort and his followers are completely unpredictable. They may decide to damn the consequences and attack tomorrow. They may have an overabundance of caution and not attack for months. We have no way to tell. Our only option is to be ready for them now, tomorrow and every day after that."

He paused a few moments to make sure that what he said had sunk in. He looked over the members of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor teams who were present and said, "There will be no practice sessions down here until after the Easter Holidays. That's because the day after tomorrow is Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. Then we have the Easter weekend", He bounced up on his toes, "Quidditch waits for no one. Of course, we all know who's going to win tomorrow…", he grinned briefly, "But don't let that stop everyone from playing their very best. I want this one to be unforgettable!"

A cheer went up from all the students before he dismissed them, "Good day, everyone."

**Roar of the Lion**

The morning of the match dawned sunny and bright. The claws were nervous and the lions were restless. There really was no match between them talent wise. Most of the claws were just hoping they wouldn't be handed too humiliating of a defeat while the lions were hungry for another win and then they would head home. Easter was in two days and they were set to leave for London the next day. This time however, the holidays were very short. Unlike the previous years, this year they had only 5 days holiday.

Harry had sent Dobby and Kitty to look to the comforts of the lodge. They were to clean it, open it up and stock it for a four day stay. Sadly, Harry knew that he could not spend more than 2 days at the lodge. There were a lot of things that demanded his attention during that time. For one, he received game passes from Puddlemere's Manager, Jeremiah Wright who had told him that one of the reserved boxes was kept for Harry and his friends should they wish to come. The game was to be held on 11th April, a day before their holidays ended and Harry was looking forward to it. Seeing Viktor Krum in action was going to be a thrilling experience. However, Viktor wouldn't be the only foreigner on the field. The Arrows had hired a chaser from Brazil who was said to be one of the best in the game at the moment. This would be a real test for Oliver Wood, the Puddlemere Keeper. The agenda for today however, was to enjoy the game as much as he could and thrash the claws into the deal.

When they all came down to breakfast, the teams arrived in the Great Hall amid great fanfare and hoots and whistles. This time, there was divided support as was always the case between the Lions and the Eagles. Harry could see that even his friends had taken sides. For instance, Luna was dressed in Ravenclaws colours and wore her famous Eagle hat, clearly rooting for her house. Susan had brought out the Gryffindor Quidditch robe again which she had worn for the Lions' match against the serpents. Similarly everyone was divided among them. Daphne however was doing something which confused him. She wore a Ravenclaw scarf around her neck but she had a Gryffindor flag in her hand. He asked her, "Who are you supporting?"

She grinned, "Well, the midget (Tori) wanted me to support her house so I wear the scarf. I wanted to support the lions, so I have your flag."

Harry chuckled, "Well, arguing with Tory never ends well, Daph. Good call."

She grinned, "That's right. Have you noticed that Macmillan has been trying to pick himself together? I mean he is trying to get his life back on track."

He nodded, "Do you mean that Tory?"

She nodded.

Then Harry was impressed, "I see your point."

The teams walked toward the lockers as Harry walked among them. Except for Angelina, every one of them was laughing and joking. They really had no reason to be worried about this match. Even Ron walked with a spring in his step. When they were all in their Quidditch robes, ready to fly out to the pitch, Their team captain addressed them, "Every single one of us has worked hard to be the best we can be. You all seem full of confidence and you have a right to be. But leave the silliness in the locker-room. Overconfidence is a killer! I want you to play as if you were in the World Cup! I want you to play so far over Ravenclaw's head that it makes their noses bleed! Show no mercy! Take no prisoners! Even though we have the best seeker in the school, I want you to score so many times that it doesn't even matter! Am I clear?!"

They all growled in acknowledgement.

Then she said, "The Slytherins did a bit of show-boating at the beginning of the last game, here's what we're going to do…"

The crowd was settled in the stadium, talking loudly among themselves. Lee was on the mike and began the commentary, "Welcome to Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. This is the fourth match of the season. This promises to be a good match with the teams scrapping it out for every point."

The Ravenclaws flew from their changeroom with their Chasers out front, their keeper flanked by the beaters next and their Seeker behind, smiling and blowing kisses to the crowd, "here come the Ravenclaws! I give you Chambers, Summers, Davies, Corner, Bradley, Page and Cho Chang. Give it up for the soaring eagles!"

The crowd went wild as the blue and bronze clad team made their way to their end of the pitch.

Lee continued, "This is the same team we saw go down in defeat last time these teams met. While they should have an advantage of long familiarity working together, and one amazing Chaser in their Team captain, Davies, one person does not a team make. We have to wonder if they may have been better off to shake the team up a bit."

Lee paused while the Claws settled on the pitch near the referee. Then Lee started speaking again, lowering his voice to add some impact, "Now, the moment you've all been waiting for, Team Gryffindor‼!"

They emerged from the change room and took up their formation. Flying in circles above were the chasers, flying slowly in the middle was Harry and flying in circles below were Ron and the Beaters. Nobody had ever seen a formation quite like that and the crowd loved it.

Lee waited for the roar of the audience to subside a bit, "The Weasleys: Fred, George and Ron! The Seeker: Harold Peverell. The Chasers: Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and their gorgeous new captain, Angelina Johnson!"

The crowd went wild Whooping, shouting and clapping. After a minute or so, they all fell into a rhythm while McGonagall chastised Lee again.

Lee speculated, "The Lions are favoured to win the cup this year. With a win today, they could clinch the Quidditch cup whether they win the last game of the season or not. They have a Seeker who has never been beaten, Beaters who are bullet-proof, a Keeper that's really tough to fake out and chasers that not only have the moves but are also beautiful to boot!"

McGonagall growled, "Jordan."

Lee didn't apologize, "Just calling them the way I see them, Professor."

When the Lions settled on the field, Lee picked up the narration, "There will be a brief pause while Madame Hooch reads the players the Riot Act."

"Jordon!", McGonagall stopped him again.

Lee said without any conviction, "Sorry Professor. The players are in position. The balls are away."

Harry took careful note of where the Snitch was heading using only his peripheral vision. He didn't want to end the game too quickly, but neither did he want to give away the position of the tiny winged golden ball.

"There's the whistle and they're off!"

"Davies dives in and comes up with the Quaffle. It looks like he caught Katie napping. And ouch! A Bludger to the side of the head! While Davies is shaking that one off, Angelina picks up the Quaffle. It's the Arrowhead formation and they're heading for the Ravenclaw goal. There's Corner with a Bludger. Angela passes to Alicia and dodges with a Sloth-grip roll. Pass to Katie. Back to Alicia and there's Corner with another Bludger. Oh! Alicia didn't see that one coming!"

The impact to the ribs nearly knocked Alicia off her broom. Angelina gave up the offensive play to see to her Team-mate. Harry looked on in concern but quickly realized that the Chaser was okay when all three of them set off after Davies.

Lee commenting, "Davies comes up with the Quaffle. It looks like Alicia is okay!"

The Gryffindors cheered when they saw the Chasers re-join the chase.

Lee announced, "Pass to Chambers. He dodges a Bludger and a Weasley. Did you see that! Angelina just slammed into him!"

Angelina's arm seemed to be bent at a strange angle as she frantically called for a time-out. Madame Hooch blew the whistle, calling a stop to the play. She inspected the Gryffindor team captain and with her long experience with Quidditch injuries, declared a broken collar-bone and called for a stretcher.

Lee announced, "It's official folks, Angelina Johnson is out of the game. That'll bring up the first alternate, yet another Weasley, welcome Ginny to the field!"

The crowd cheered as the nimbus of red hair came hurtling onto the pitch aboard her nimbus 2001. It was the same broom that all the Slytherins used, but she made it look a lot more nimble.

Lee continued, "No penalty on that play. There's the tip-off and it's Ginny with the Quaffle! Can you believe that speed! She's past the chasers, dodges the beaters It's a break-away! She's in a corkscrew! Page has no clue where to defend and SCORE! With a shot through the centre hoop, it's 10 – 0 for Gryffindor!"

Harry had seen that grin on Ginny before. It didn't bode well for Ravenclaw. They might have been better off if they hadn't injured the team captain. Alicia was calling the plays in Angelina's place and she hadn't missed a beat.

Then right after the whistle to resume play, Cho leaned down on her Comet 360 and headed for the Gryffindor goal at maximum speed. Harry knew where the Snitch really was, so he didn't fall for this ruse for even one split-second, but he thought it might be fun to play along.

Lee, however, got excited, "There goes the Ravenclaw Seeker! Has Cho spotted the snitch? Harry is on the job, but it looks like he's going to be beat for the first time!"

Seeing that Harry was falling for it and moving a lot faster than she was, Cho pushed her broom into a dive. She thought it would be great sport to see The Great Harry Potter get ploughed. It was a dirty trick, worthy of Malfoy.

Lee continued, "She's diving for it! I still don't see it. There goes Harry! He's looping around her! Is he going to…?"

Harry looped in front of Cho, almost colliding with her forcing her to pull out of the dive and saved her from hitting the ground. He gave her a wink as he pulled away.

Lee breathed a sigh of relief, "It was a feint. Now there's a true gentleman! Harry saves Cho from almost certain doom. It's Davies in possession. He's cornered in the arrowhead formation. Pass to Summers. Summers in the Gryffindor end! Ron gets a piece of it, but it's through the right hoop for a goal! It's tied up at 10 all."

Harry decided to have some fun. He knew the Snitch was in the Gryffindor end, but, leaning down against his broom-handle, he shot past Cho so fast that it nearly blew her right off of her broom. Without a moment's hesitation, she flipped her broom around to follow the Gryffindor seeker. Harry did his best to make sure that she never got a look at what was in front of him.

"There goes Harry! Cho is hot on his heels! Could this be it? Harry waited until Cho was getting everything she could out of her Comet, then he pulled a buttonhook with so much force that his broom creaked under the strain of the manoeuvre. In that instant between when Cho realized that she'd been had and Harry flew past her in the opposite direction, she saw Harry laughing uproariously.

Lee picked it up, "No. Just another feint. Katie Bell in possession and she dodges the beaters and a Bludger and does a reverse pass to Alicia. Chambers, Summers and Corner are trying Parkin's pincer on her. Harold Peverell arrives out of nowhere to break up that play. And there goes Cho Chang! She's flying toward the stands Is she on the trail of the Snitch finally?"

Harry knew exactly where the Snitch was. This game of feint and laugh was getting old. It was pretty clear that Cho had no idea where the Snitch was. Just for some sport of his own, he made a dive on the stands to the opposite side of the pitch.

Lee dismissed the whole show, "It's another feint. It's Ginny with the Quaffle! Alicia and Katie are in tight formation. Bludger incoming! And Weasley bats it away. Pass to Katy. Across to Alicia. Back to Ginny and the shot… Nice save! Pass back out to Corner and Ouch! That's got to hurt! It's the double Bludger attack by Weasley and Weasley! Ginny picks up the Quaffle. The shot and… It's clean through the centre hoop! 20 – 10 for Gryffindor!

And that's the way it went for another hour. Both teams were not giving an inch. Ginny showed that she was every inch a Weasley and every inch as good a Chaser as the team had ever seen. As the game pressed on and defences and attacks got more aggressive, tempers began to fray. As the fouls piled up, so did the score. Ron was on form. After missing that first save, he only missed twice and that was because he had been outwitted on the first fail. He stopped seven out of ten shots on goal but the Ravenclaw Keeper, Page, was not quite so fortunate. The relentless attacks, mostly led by Ginny added up to 15 in total. He only managed to stop eight of them. For Cho's part, she finally decided to quit trying to flirt with or fake out Harry and got down to the serious business of trying to find the Golden Snitch. If she didn't come up with it soon, it wouldn't matter who caught it because Gryffindor would win anyway. The Gryffindors weren't completely innocent either. There was plenty of blatching, cobbing, bumphing and other fouls on both sides. Out of all the penalty shots awarded, Ron stopped all that came at him. Page was only able to stop 3 out of 5.

Harry was still following the progress of the little winged ball around the pitch. When he saw it coming right up behind the Ravenclaw Seeker, he thought that he'd better go catch it before she spotted it. Laying down flat against his broom handle, he pushed for all the speed it would give him. For a Firebolt, that's saying a lot. With his eye fixed on the tiny golden ball, the wind ripping through his hair, he set course to come up behind the hapless Cho Chang.

Lee remarked, "There goes Harry again. Has he really spotted the Snitch or is he going to steal a kiss from the other Seeker?"

McGonagall snapped, "Jordan, that's the last…", She stood up, "He's spotted it!".

Cho being warned looked around for her opposite number. She was terrified to see a madly grinning maniac on a Firebolt heading straight for her. As she made a hard turn to dodge the incoming juggernaut, she spotted the Snitch winging around her feet. In the spirit of a true Seeker, she jumped from her broom, making a grab for the difference between victory and defeat, but too late. Her hand brushed over the closed fist that already contained the Snitch. Harry had already ended the game.

More than 100 feet up, with no broom and no snitch, Cho's immediate future didn't look very promising.

Lee's commentary, "Yes folks, he's spotted the Snitch! Have you ever seen a broom go that fast! Cho's spotted it too! She makes a dive for it! Gutsy move! But, Harold Peverell makes the catch! Someone help Cho!"

Harry was so focused on the Snitch that it took Lee's alarm for him to realize that Cho wasn't on her broom anymore. He had his hands full with the Snitch and his broom, but he flipped his broom over into a dive and tried to get under his erstwhile rival. As quick as his reactions were, they proved unnecessary. Madame Hooch already hit her with Arresto Momentum while her Team-mate, Corner, retrieved her broom. Brown and Davies caught her before she reached the ground. Once Harry saw that she was in no danger, he pulled out of his dive and flew over to join his team-mates.

Lee announced, "She's going to be OK, folks. Our fast-thinking referee is on the job. In other news, Gryffindor wins‼ The final score, Gryffindor 250 and Ravenclaw 30. That's it for today!"

There was a big collision in mid-air as four red-heads plus Katie, Alicia and Harry all met for a giant fist-bump.

The Ravenclaws flew out to congratulate the winners. They may have lost, but they were happy that their Seeker was unharmed.

As for the Lions… There was a massive party that night and more than a few students feeling fuzzy in the head as they boarded the train the next morning to go home for the long weekend.


End file.
